HYDERABAD: The raging paddy politics in Telangana took an ugly turn on Monday with BJP and TRS cadre resorting to pitched battles as the saffron party’s State president Bandi Sanjay Kumar set out on a tour of Nalgonda district to inspect paddy procurement at IKP Centres and to get a first-hand account of the travails of farmers, who are unable to sell their produce.
As Sanjay Kumar’s Rythu Bharosa tour entered Nalgonda district, the TRS workers suddenly appeared everywhere and swooped in on his convoy of cars. Some even hurled stones at his car while he was crossing Settipalem in Nalgonda district. Not to be outdone, the BJP cadre too fought with TRS workers, with police remaining helpless in quelling the quarrelling workers.
Sanjay Kumar met with stiff resistance throughout the day as he wove his way around Nalgoda district. Though he tried to speak to the farmers, it was not possible at several places with the TRS workers interrupting him time and again with loud slogans, asking him to go back even while waving black flags at him.
Throughout the last fortnight, the two parties remained at loggerheads over the paddy procurement issue.
The Telangana government wants the Centre to procure the entire stock of paddy produced in Kharif season, which they say is about 1.1 core tonnes. But the BJP insists that since the FCI has an agreement with the State government, it would not procure more than 60 lakh tonnes. When Sanjay Kumar visited an IKP Centre at Arjalabavi where paddy is procured by the State, local TRS MLA K Bhupal Reddy along with his supporters, gathered at the place ahead of the former’s arrival.
Enraged over the deployment of the TRS cadre, the BJP workers try to drive them away but the pink party workers resisted and raised slogans, asking Sanjay Kumar to go back. This led a clash between the two groups even as some workers threw eggs and stones at Sanjay Kumar’s convoy.
The TRS MLA said that Sanjay Kumar should not be allowed there until he obtains a clear assurance from the Union government that it would procure the entire stock of Karif paddy in the State. Despite all the disturbances, the BJP leader lent his ear to the farmers as they narrated their grievances at Thipparthi and Kukkadam in the Nalgonda district. His convoy also met with road blockade by the TRS workers on Musi bridge at Chillepalli in Suryapet district. As he was on his way to Miryalguda, some TRS workers again hurled eggs at his convoy.
In protest, the BJP activists held demonstrations on the road, alleging that though the TRS workers were creating a law and order problem, the police have remained mute spectators. The TRS leaders, however, had a different take on the trouble that broke out in the district. Minister G Jagadish Reddy said that it was in fact an attack on farmers of Nalgonda district by the BJP leader’s “goondas”.
“For the last six years, paddy procurement in Nalgonda district went without any hitch. But it turned violent now because of Sanjay Kumar. When farmers at procurement centres were confronting the BJP leaders, Sanjay Kumar’s “goondas” attacked them,” he claimed.