Union Minister faces wrath of Left activists in Kadapa

KADAPA/ KURNOOL: Tension prevailed at R&B Guest House in Kadapa, when police canned and dragged the protesters, including women members of the Rayalaseema Communist Party, when they obstructed the convoy of Union Minister Ananth Kumar on Saturday. A footwear hurled by one of the women protestors hit the rear windshield of the Union minister’s car. 

The minister was on his way to participate in the function organised for launching of the India Post Payment Bank, when the protesters led by RCP secretary M Ravi Shankar Reddy obstructed the convoy demanding setting up of a steel plant in Kadapa district and implementation of various other provisions of the AP Reorganisation Act. 

A heated argument ensued between the police and the protesters and when a police official allegedly used foul language, an enraged woman protester, identified as Taslim, threw her slipper on the minister’s car. Immediately police detained her and other activists including Ravi Shankar Reddy and shifted them to One Town police station and later to CK Dinne police station. 

A similar tense situation prevailed at Mantralayam, where a three-day national-level coordination meeting of the RSS was being held, when TDP Mantralayam constituency in-charge P Tikka Reddy along with his followers and local leaders of Left parties were reportedly kept under house arrest on Saturday as a precautionary measure.

Several workers of CPI, CPM and their frontal organisations were also reportedly taken into preventive custody on the pretext that they were planning protests near the venue. Decrying the police attitude as undemocratic, leaders questioned as to why  YSRC leaders were not put under house arrest. 
Kurnool SP Gopinath Jatti denied of putting any leader under house arrest or taking anyone from TDP or Left parties into preventive custody. “Local police may have taken some precautions to prevent protests, but no arrests were made,” he clarified.