Condemning the arrest of Opposition leaders when they tried to lay siege to the pump house at Tadipatri, near here on Saturday, YSRC central committee member Pyla Narasimhaiah attempted suicide by consuming pesticide.
The oppostion party leaders were protesting against the pump house officials supplying water from the Penna river to cement factories.
Narasimhaiah, resenting the police high-handedness consumed pesticide, which he had brought with him, while cops were shifting him along with others to the police station in a jeep.
They first rushed him to Tadipatri hospital and later to Anantapur and finally to Bengaluru, as his condition turned critical.
Activists of YSRC, BJP, CPI and CPM tried to besiege the pump house supplying water to Ultra Tech and Penna Cement companies near Tadipatri, demanding the state government to stop supply of water to these companies.
The leaders maintained that the two factories were drawing more water than the quantities allocated to them.
This was affecting people of the region, who were facing acute drinking water shortage.
Earlier, Narasimhaiah had launched a hunger strike on the issue but the authorities continued to supply Penna water to the factories.
Against this backdrop, leaders of various parties met Tadipatri tahsildar on Friday and submitted a memorandum asking him to give the exact quantum of water being drawn by both the cement factories and threatened to besiege the pump house in Sajjaladinne village.
As a precautionary measure police had imposed Section 144 in Tadipatri town and arrested the leaders, while they were proceeding to the pump house in a procession from Ambedkar statue.
Leaders including Veeresh and Ramakrishna of the CPI, Rangaiah of CPM, Radhakrishna, Ankala Reddy and Kesav of BJP and others took part in the protest.