The situation remained surcharged at Jangaon venue from the beginning itself with the BRS deciding to bare the Congress of its "failure" in implementing its promises.
Published Jan 27, 2025 | 3:17 PM ⚊ Updated Jan 27, 2025 | 3:17 PM
Lathi charge at Jangaon. (Screengrab)
A vicious lathi-charge by the police at an official meeting at Erraguntathanda in Jangaon in Telangana on Republic Day organised to mark the launching of the welfare schemes left several activists of the BRS and Congress with injuries.
The violent scenes at the venue forced Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy to cancel his visit to the village.
The situation remained surcharged at the venue from the beginning itself with the BRS deciding to bare the Congress of its “failure” in implementing its promises.
As Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy was to arrive to kick off the schemes, tension was quite palpable. The minister is always an eyesore for the BRS workers. They harbour animosity against him as he remained dissident in the BRS when it was in power and later joined the Congress ahead of the Assembly elections in 2023.
When Jangoan BRS MLA Palla Rajeswara Reddy arrived at the venue of the programme, it added to the frenzy. The BRS workers began raising anti-government slogans even as Rajeeswar Reddy was entering the venue with a horde of his supporters. This led to BRS and Congress workers raising full-throated slogans against each other.
In the melee, some unidentified youths began throwing tomatoes, eggs and stones at the legislator as he was raising the demand that all four welfare schemes as announced in the past should be implemented without any restrictions.
Immediately BRS workers retaliated, pushing the Congress workers away. Taking the cue, the police swung into action.
They resorted to a lathi-charge which the BRS described as the most barbaric ever. BRS leader T Harish Rao raised the question of whether the police should be allowed to beat up party workers until their canes broke, suggesting it could be part of a political witch hunt.
As the police began using force, both the groups threw the plastic chairs arranged there for the audience at each other, exacerbating the situation and giving the police reason to intensify their attack on the BRS workers mostly but the Congress workers too received severe blows.
More than a dozen BRS workers sustained injuries and a few media persons too could not escape the police’s wrath.
Rajeswar Reddy, protesting against the lathi charge staged a sit-in at the venue and refused to move out even after the police asked him. Later they arrested him and took him away to the Jangoan police station.
Since Sunday morning, the atmosphere around the venue was charged with tension. As Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, the minister in charge of the combined Warangal district, which includes Jangoan, was scheduled to visit, the police had placed BRS leaders from the district under house arrest.
Late Sunday night, Palla Rajeswara Reddy, speaking to media persons, said the Congress cannot bully the BRS using the police.
He called the lathi charge a cheap tactic to control the BRS and said that his party would continue to fight till the government ensured that the benefits of the welfare schemes reached all the beneficiaries.
He added that the lathi charge was unprovoked and held the local Inspector, Damodar Reddy, responsible for the excesses committed by the police.
BRS MLC K Kavitha condemned the “inhuman” police attacks on BRS activists in Erraguntathanda and deplored that the police should act as Congress workers.
(Edited by Sumavarsha)
