Congress MLA faces fury of TRS activists

Hyderabad: Former minister and senior Congress legislator G. Chinna Reddy from Wanaparthy was injured when local TRS workers attacked him with sticks in a protocol related incident in Mahbubnagar district on Monday.

Injured Chinna Reddy was admitted in Wanaparthy local area hospital where he is recovering. TPCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, leaders of Opposition in the Assembly and Council K. Jana Reddy and Shabbir Ali condemned the incident and demanded that the Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao immediately intervene and take action against those responsible for the attack on the Congress MLA. They have also said though there have been several directions to officials to follow protocol, the lower rung officials are ignoring them and only acting at the whims of ruling TRS leaders.

According to reports reaching here, there was a dispute regarding observing protocol for the local MLA and the State Planning Board Deputy Chairman, Niranjan Reddy who incidentally was defeated by the Congress MLA in the last general elections. The state government sanctioned funds for taking up rural road works in all the Revenue Mandals of Wanaparthy Assembly segment including one in Quilla Ghanpur mandal. After coming to know that Mr Niranjan Reddy was going to lay foundation stones at every village without involving the local Congress MLA, irritated Congress workers reportedly damaged the foundation stone at Venka-tampalli village.

Angered by this the mandal parishad president Krishna Naik belonging to ruling TRS along with his supporters threatened the local sarpanch of dire consequences if the damaged stone was not repaired in an hour. When this issue was brought to the notice of MLA Chinna Reddy, he rushed to the spot and demanded action against Mr Naik and others. This led to a clash between local Congress and TRS workers with sticks and at one stage TRS workers attacked Mr Chinna Reddy causing injuries to his head, hands and shoulder.

Police who reached the spot used mild cane charge and dispersed the mob. However Chinna Reddy continued his protest demanding action against TRS leaders. At this stage local police inspectors intervened and assured him that they will take action against the culprits. Later Chinna Reddy left the place and got admitted to the local area hospital.