YSRCP and TDP blame each other for Pulivendula violence

In the aftermath of the violent incidents in Pulivendula town during the nomination phase of the local body elections on Saturday, both the YSRCP and NDA partners blamed each other for the situation.

Staging a protest along with YSRCP cadres, Kadapa Member of Parliament Y.S. Avinash Reddy flayed the Police Department for resorting to lathi-charge, use of tear-gas, and firing in the air “in a bid to create scare among its activists.”

He said that his party candidates arrived at the scheduled time given by the senior police officials, who, he alleged, later asked them to “go back and return tomorrow.”

“How is this justified? Why are our candidates not allowed to file their nominations at the assured time today?” was his query.

While hundreds of TDP supporters were allowed till a particular point, the police chased away only our people, “which is unacceptable,” Mr. Avinash Reddy said, while accusing the TDP men of carrying sickles and stones.

He appealed to the State Election Commission to provide security to all the candidates during the nomination filing phase and ensure that they were accepted without any prejudice.

On the other hand, Pulivendula TDP in-charge Mareddy Ravindranath Reddy (known as ‘B.Tech’ Ravi) asked the YSRCP to stop imagining to be in power.

“The YSR family members and its supporters are unable to tolerate the fact that so many number of aspirants are filing nominations in a free and fair manner in their citadel and hence this violence,” he said.

‘Law-breakers stopped’

Meanwhile, Deputy Inspector-General of Police Koya Praveen, Collector Sreedhar Cherukuri and Superintendent of Police Nachiket Vishwanath Shelke told the media that the heavy crowd of aspirants gathered to file nominations on Saturday, an ‘auspicious date’, which led to the violence.

Mr. Praveen said every candidate was allowed along with two accomplices to file nominations, but whoever violated the law by taking out procession were strictly stopped.

As around 500 members flouted the prohibitory orders under Section 163 of BNSS and tried to march towards the nomination centre, we deployed reasonable force to push them away and later used tear gas, Mr. Shelke explained.