Tirupati: Tension mounted in the district late on Sunday, after the cops detained YSRC Chandragiri legislator Chevireddy Bhaskar Reddy as part of a preventive measure, which later provoked the party cadre to hold protests at various constituencies across the district including District Police Office at Chittoor city.
The MLA had been gheraoing in front of Police Training Centre (PTC) in the city, where some of the party supporters were kept after arresting them on charges of manhandling private election surveyors and missing of tablets, which were used by the surveyors.
On Saturday, a few YSRC supporters were arrested at Yerravaripalem mandal in the district for allegedly manhandling a private election surveyor.
In a similar incident, on Sunday night, YSRC supporters in Pakala also held three private election surveyors and allegedly manhandled them, led to the arrests of party’s cadre.
“The MLA late on Sunday held protest in front of PTC, demanding to show the arrested YSRC supporters. As the situation turning to be tensed, the cops detained the MLA and shifted him to Satyavedu police station, where he is still under detention”, said Daminedu Kesava, YSRC leader.
Meanwhile, protesting against the detention of their party MLA, the YSRC cadre at various constituencies across the district held protests since midnight, demanding the police to release their MLA. The situation has become worse on Monday after hundreds of party cadres took the streets and staged series of protests across various constituencies in the district that led to arrests of many.
It may be recalled here that the MLA Chevireddy Bhaskar Reddy, earlier also filed a complaint with the Chief Electoral Officer asking him about how the Telugu Desam leaders were removing the YSRCP supporters’ names from the electoral rolls in Chandragiri constituency.
In the complaint, Mr. Chevireddy mentioned that more than 150 voters' names from each booth in this constituency went missing. The MLA also remarked that he had submitted evidence about the persons who were behind this incident and mentioned that almost 14,000 votes had been removed in the constituency by TD leaders.
In wake of his compliant, the ECI also pressed officials to probe on the issue and it was under investigation. Meanwhile, when the issue of alleged deletion of voters by individuals - reportedly election surveyors of private organisations, who were held by the YSRC supporters, came to fore in recent times, the District Collector and Election Officer Mr. P.S. Pradyumna and SP Mr. Vikrant Patil also clarified the public that no individual can delete the names from the voter lists and informed that during the elections several private organisation conducts surveys by sending their representatives.
However, the YSRC supporters at these villages in Chandragiri constituency are still continuing in believing such rumours. In this regard, On Sunday night the party cadre allegedly manhandled three private election surveyors and surrendered them to the police. The police after verifying took three YSRC party men into custody, acting on the complaint given by the surveyors, who complained the police that their tablets were lost. The MLA who staged protest demanding the police to show their arrested party men was still under detention, police said.
