Police resorted to lathicharge and took into custody hundreds of activists of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) as they staged protests and tried to block the police convoy carrying the party’s national president N. Chandrababu Naidu from Nandyal to Vijayawada, through Prakasam district, on Saturday.
The TDP activists attempted to stop the vehicle carrying the former Chief Minister at several places on the Kurnool highway, as the convoy entered Giddalur, even as the police made elaborate security arrangements to ensure its safe passage.
“There was no major law and order problem anywhere in the district. The situation is well under control with the beefing up of security,” Prakasam Superintendent of Police Malika Garg told The Hindu. Stray incidents occurred en route, including at Chimakurthy town, and the police resorted to lathicharge to keep at bay the surging crowds, she said.
In Ongole, a TDP activist was seen barging towards the convoy even as the alert police whisked him away in no time.
A large number of TDP activists waited on the road margins and raised slogans in support of Mr. Naidu as the convoy passed through the arterial Chennai-Kolkata Highway.
Enraged over the ‘‘undemocratic’‘ arrest of their leader in the AP Skill Development case, the activists burnt tyres at several places on the expressway. Fire service personnel were pressed into service to put off the flames.
Police had a tough time evicting the party activists who poured onto the highway at several places, including J. Pangalur, demanding the withdrawal of the “foisted case” against Mr. Naidu and the immediate release of their leader.
Upset over Mr. Naidu’s arrest in the midst of an election campaign, a large number of TDP activists assembled at the NTR Bhavan and later took out a protest march up to the statue of TDP founder N.T. Rama Rao at the Addanki Bus Stand Centre. They staged a sit-in protest for some time before the police dispersed them.
