MAHABUBABAD: Telangana Police on Sunday detained YSR Telangana Party President YS Sharmila for allegedly making inappropriate comments against Mahabubabad MLA Banoth Shankar Naik.
This comes after Sharmila had criticised the BRS MLA at a public meeting on Saturday.
The incident took place in Salar Thanda village in the Mahabubabad Assembly Constituency, where Sharmila was camping as part of her Praja Prasthanam Padayatra.
The police had initially issued a notice to the YSRTP chief but later took Sharmila into custody and shifted her to Hyderabad. YSRTP workers staged a demonstration and blocked the road, leading the police to use force to disperse them.
Tension prevailed earlier in the day when Sharmila's Padayatra was obstructed by the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) cadre in Mahabubabad Assembly Constituency. Led by MLA Naik's wife, the BRS cadre staged a protest at the camping site of Sharmila's Padyatra.
Taking offence to Sharmila's comments, Naik's loyalists tried to attack YSRTP leaders and allegedly pelted stones at their vehicles and the party's campaign posters.
According to the Mahabubabad District Superintendent of Police (SP) Sharat Chandra Pawar, Sharmila had allegedly made provocative and inflammatory statements that have been "used to disturb public peace."
The police said that "obscene speeches had been made to insult the local Bharat Rashtra Samithi MLA Banoth Shankar Naik personally, creating a law and order problem."
Meanwhile, local police also cancelled the permission given for the padayatra in Mahabubabad.