Hyderabad: Police on Thursday denied permission to Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) to conduct its Chalo Raj Bhavan programme on Friday.
The party leadership is firm to conduct the protest against rising prices of petrol and diesel. A rally will be started from Dharna Chowk at Indira Park and it would head for Raj Bhavan.
The Congress has urged its rank and file to make the agitation against fuel price hike a big success. The TPCC had organised cycle and bullock cart rallies on Monday in all 33 district headquarters of Telangana state against the steep hike in fuel prices.
TPCC president Revanth Reddy made it clear on Thursday that the party will hold the Chalo Raj Bhavan programme in a peaceful manner. “If the police try to foil the Congress protests, we will fight back”, he warned.
Former Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council Mohammad Ali Shabbir said a delegation of the Congress will be allowed to meet Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan on Friday. “We will sit in protest at Dharna Chowk as usual,” he said.
Reportedly, the police are planning to take Congress leaders into preventive custody ahead of the Chalo Raj Bhavan programme. Police are keeping a vigil on movement of opposition party leaders, with a view to preventing any agitation during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Protesters have reached ‘strategic locations’ to make the Chalo Raj Bhavan programme a success, a Congress leader said.
Speaking to Deccan Chronicle on Thursday night, AICC spokesperson Dasoju Sravan said the police did not give permission for the Congress protest against petrol and diesel prices. “No preventive arrest was made so far,” he said.
A few Congress leaders from districts also reached Hyderabad on Thursday to participate in the Chalo Raj Bhavan programme.
