Jana Sena Party (JSP) president Pawan Kalyan said on Friday that he would write to Union Home Minister Amit Shah about the violence that had broken out at Amalapuram recently over the renaming of Konaseema district.
“It is certainly not due to any disrespect for B.R. Ambedkar. There seems to be some political motivation behind it,” Mr. Pawan Kalyan told the media at the party office near Mangalagiri.
There had been a warning from the Central Intelligence agencies, but the State government acted in a negligent way while dealing with the situation, he said, while pointing out that a Shiv Sena leader blamed the Prime Minister for it when, in fact, neither Mr. Narendra Modi nor the BJP had anything to do with the incident.
Taking objection to the “stoic silence” of Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and his Cabinet colleagues on the incident, Mr. Pawan Kalyan regretted that Director General of Police K.V. Rajendranath Reddy did not visit the town to personally find who orchestrated the attacks on the houses of Minister P. Viswaroop and MLA P. Satish Kumar and destructed public property.
I had sought the DGP’s appointment to express my concern, but he did not respond as he was apparently under pressure,” the JSP leader said, insisting that the arson that shocked the State should not be taken lightly.
Mr. Pawan Kalyan alleged the police had “totally failed” in preventing the violence in spite of having Intelligence warnings. The root cause was the “differences (over naming the district) between two groups within a party,” he alleged, and said the YSR Congress Party (YSRC)) should be blamed for it.
‘Alliance with BJP intact’
Mr. Pawan Kalyan maintained that his party’s alliance with the BJP was intact, but refrained from predicting whether it would be so for the 2024 elections.
He did not comment if the JSP intended to contest the elections alone, or would be a part of a larger alliance that might have the TDP and the Left parties in it alongside the BJP and the JSP.
He reiterated that the anti-YSR Congress Party vote should not be split, lest the consequences should be far worse than what people were enduring at the moment. “If the YSRCP returns to power, anarchy will prevail, as whoever raises their voice against the government will be persecuted,” he asserted.
