Ahead of civic body elections in Andhra Pradesh, violence turned its ugly head. Some miscreants (video footages evidently show their faces) was attacked the car of former Vijayawada central TDP MLA Bonda Umamaheswara who was travelling along with TDP MLC Buddha Venkanna.
The incident occurred at Macherla ring road in Guntur. The attackers tried to stop the black Audi car in which the two TDP leaders were travelling and smashed the window panes of the car with sticks. In the incident, a lawyer who accompanied the two TDP leaders received minor injuries.
The two TDP leaders were on their way to attend a meeting to discuss about filing of nomination for the MPTC and ZPTC elections. Soon after the incident, Buddha Venkanna apprised TDP president Chandrababu Naidu and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister about the incident over the phone.
“YSRCP henchmen attacked us with sticks and stones and damaged our car in an organized manner. Initially, stones were pelted at our car before we reached Macherla ring road, we escaped. At Macherla, we were attacked with sticks. But we will not be cowed down by such attacks,” Buddha Venkanna told Naidu over phone.
Reacting sharply to the incident, Naidu condemned the attack saying such incidents were not isolated cases but a common refrain across parts of Andhra Pradesh, especially in Rayalaseema including Chittoor, Kurnool, Kadapa where TDP leaders and activists have been under constant attack by the YSRCP leaders and their followers. “Violence and physical attack have become YSRCP’s culture, but we will get more determined to raise people’s voice after every attack. CM and DGP has to give an explanation to the incident. They wanted to kill Bonda Uma and Buddha Venkanna. Such incidents have not happened even in Kashmir or Bihar,” Naidu rued.
However, YSRCP Macherla sitting MLA and party whip Pennelli Ramakrisha Reddy denied the role of party activists. He said, as a matter of fact, former TDP MLA Bonda Umamaheswara and TDP MLC Buddha Venkanna along with a cavalcade of 10 vehicles were travelling from Vijayawada to Macherla to unleash unrest in Palanadu ahead of MPTC and ZPTC elections. At Macherla, one of the vehicles was involved in an accident injuring a minor boy. Enraged over this, the locals have attacked the vehicle of Bonda Uma and Buddha Venkanna, Pennelli Ramakrisha Reddy said at a press conference.
In another press conference, YSRCP senior leader Botsa Satyanarayana rubbished the TDP allegations that YSRCP workers were behind the incident. It was in fact orchestrated by TDP president Chandrababu Naidu to trigger unrest ahead of civic body polls. “He does not want a peaceful conduct of elections. Naidu is a desperate man who knows too well that the TDP will lose the elections. He wants to disrupt the government’s attempt to conduct elections in a peaceful environment. Where was the need for Bonda Uma and Buddha Venkanna to travel from Vijayawada to Palanadu in a cavalcade of 10 cars? It is obviously to foment trouble in Palanadu to create fear psychosis. Naidu and his leaders should stop rowdyism or the law will take its own course. People will give a befitting reply to TDP in the elections,” he said.
