Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president Y. S. Sharmila, staged a dharna, along with party leaders and cadres on the premises of the party office Andhra Ratna Bhavan on Thursday morning, as a large posse of police deployed outside the office prevented movement of the party leaders and cadres.
Holding placards demanding release of ‘Mega DSC’ by the government, the party leaders raised slogans against the government failure to do justice to the youth in the State and demanded justice for them.
The party office turned into a citadel with large posse of police deployed on the entire stretch of the road to prevent the party leaders from staging the proposed “Chalo Secretariat” protest to highlight the plight of unemployed youth in the State.
Ms. Sharmila Reddy and a large number of party leaders and cadres from across the State reached the party office in Vijayawada on Wednesday night itself and slept there to avoid their arrest en route the next day.
Also read | Sharmila flays ‘house arrest’ of Congress leaders
A large number of police personnel, including women constables, waited outside the Congress office from early hours of Thursday with vehicles that were used to shift the leaders and cadres coming out of the office or those coming from outside, into the office.
Former APCC president and CWC member Gidugu Rudra Raju and the party’s working president Shaik Mastan Vali who came out of the office were bundled into a police vehicle using force. Mr. Mastan Vali questioned the police act and said that it seemed like a jungle raj prevailed in the State. “Don’t we have the right to stage a protest against a crucial issue like the growing unemployment among the youth of the State?” he asked, even as he was overpowered by the policemen and put inside a vehicle. They were later released.
Ms. Sharmila slammed the “autocratic” rule of the Jagan Mohan Reddy, under which nobody was allowed to take up the cause of the suffering sections of the society.
AICC in-charge for Congress party in Andhra Pradesh Manickam Tagore posted videos of what he called “police high handedness in Jagan rule” on “X” and launched a scathing attack on YSR Congress Party’s “misrule”. “Appalled at the mistreatment of APCC working president Mastan Vali and others by Jagan police. This high-handed approach is unacceptable. To stage a protest is a democratic right of people,” he posted.
