VIJAYAWADA: A day after eight TDP supporters were killed in a stampede during a roadshow in Kandukur, party supremo and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu continued his programme in Nellore district as per schedule and addressed public gatherings at Kavali on Thursday.After observing two minutes silence in respect of the deceased in Kandukur stampede, Naidu began his speech at a roadshow organised as part of ‘Idemi Karma Mana Rashtraniki’.
Taking a dig at the claim of Nellore SP that the meeting in Kandukur was not conducted at the place permitted by police, Naidu warned that filing of illegal cases against TDP leaders in connection with the untoward incident will not be tolerated.
He said the people encouraged him to go ahead in the fight against the YSRC government. Accusing Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy of committing several irregularities and amassing a huge wealth, Naidu said he is preparing to give Rs 10,000 per vote in the next elections.
In fact, death of eight supporters came as a shock to the TDP as the tragedy took place at a time when the party leadership is planning to go to the people with more vigour to win their trust.Buoyed by the huge turnout at TDP meetings since Mahanadu, the annual conclave of the party organised at Ongole in May, the Opposition Telugu Desam has been organising a series of programmes on a successful note to expose the YSRC government.
It is planning to organise more such crowd pulling events in the days to come as less than one-and-half-a-years remained for the next general elections. But the stampede prompted the party leadership to lay emphasis on safety of people attending the meetings in the future.
However, TDP leaders claim that they are managing to conduct the party programmes with the support of the cadre as the State government is not deploying adequate police force to ensure the smooth conduct of the events.
“We have been witnessing non-cooperation from police since Mahanadu. We have succeeded in conducting the annual conclave smoothly by deploying our party youth wing as volunteers to control the surging crowds,’’ a senior TDP leader told TNIE.
“Henceforth, we will be more cautious and conduct the party programmes by taking all the precautionary measures to avoid any untoward incidents in the future, he added.