Modi's Tirumala visit: Left Leaders Put Under House Arrest

Tirupati: Several prominent left party leaders across Tirupati district have remained under house arrest over the past two days in view of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's two-day visit to Tirumala temple beginning Sunday.

Among those confined to their homes are CPM's district secretary V. Nagaraju, Tirupati city secretary T. Subrahmanyam, and other leaders including S. Jayachandra, M. Narendra and Madhav. CPI leaders including district secretary P. Murali and city secretary J. Viswanath also found themselves under house arrest.

Strongly denouncing the arrests, CPI secretary Murali accused the PM of betraying the people of Andhra Pradesh by not fulfilling his promises related to granting special category status to the state. He maintained that Modi no longer has any moral right to visit Tirumala after going back on the promise he made in Tirupati during the 2014 elections.

Murali slammed Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy for displaying what he called unnecessary submissiveness to Modi, as evidenced by house arrests of Left leaders.

CPM district secretary Nagaraju termed the house arrests undemocratic and a gross violation of democratic ethics. He expressed confidence that the electorate will teach both BJP and YSRC a lesson in the upcoming polls.