Hyderabad: Police on Friday foiled the Chalo Raj Bhavan programme here and arrested scores of Congress leaders including state party president A. Revanth Reddy as they protested against the steady rise in petrol and diesel prices.
In response to the call from the AICC, the TPCC staged a dharna at Indira Park. Preventive arrests of Congress leaders had been done across the state on Thursday night and Friday.
Revanth Reddy, party working presidents Anjan Kumar Yadav, Geeta Reddy, Jayaprakash ‘Jagga’ Reddy, Mahesh Kumar Goud, MLA Dhanasari Anasuya, AICC programmes panel chief Maheshar Reddy, as also Mohd Ali Shabbir, Ponnala Lakshmaiah, Damodar Rajanarasimha, Mallu Ravi and Bosu Raju were present.
Congress leaders said they wanted to submit a memorandum to Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan after a Chalo Raj Bhavan march against rise in fuel prices.
Police told them that the Governor was out of station and the memorandum could be submitted online. TPCC leaders replied that, if so, they wanted to symbolically submit the memorandum to the statue of Dr B.R. Ambedkar at Tank Bund.
As Congress leaders and activists moved towards Tank Bund, police halted the march. Revanth Reddy and others were held when they crossed barricades. Others were taken in police vans to Amberpet station and Goshamahal stadium.
Slogans were raised by the Congressmen against the NDA and TRS governments.
Addressing the gathering, the TPCC chief alleged that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has deputed such police officers who are his close relatives to thwart the peaceful agitation. “This is unfair,” he said.
Revanth Reddy said the police must mend their ways. “We will come to power in the next two years and errant cops should be ready to pay a price for their highhandedness on Congressmen,” he said.
He alleged that Chief Minister Rao's close aides and relatives were cancelling their Indian citizenship and getting passports of other countries to flee from India as and when the TRS lost power.
“KCR came to power twice by trading lies. He made false promises and won polls but forgot about those later. All sections of people are unhappy with the TRS rule,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mahila Congress and NSUI activists tried to enter Raj Bhavan. Police took them into custody.
