The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) on Friday took serious exception to the arrest of former Minister and legislator K. Atchannaidu in the ESIC funds misappropriation issue, and dubbed it an attack on the Backward Classes (BC) community.
Party leaders gathered at Jyotirao Phule statue on Prakasam Road in the city and protested his arrest. Former MLA M. Sugunamma, city unit president D. Bhaskar Yadav, women’s wing president P. Vijayalakshmi and district leaders R.C. Munikrishna and B.G. Krishna Yadav gathered at the junction carrying a banner and raised slogans against the government for the midnight attack.
“A former Cabinet Minister who is the present deputy floor leader of the main Opposition party deserves to be treated with respect, but this cannot be expected of the YSRCP government.” Ms. Sugunamma said.
At Srikalahasti, P.R. Mohan, former chairman of Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh (SAAP), called it an attempt to muzzle the voice of the opposition. Mr. Mohan said that he hoped sanity would prevail over the State Government, which he said was bent on politically neutralising TDP leaders.
In Kadapa, the party’s district president R. Sreenivasa Reddy condemned the attack and called it a ‘first anniversary gift’ of the YSRCP government to the community. “This government is all about personal attacks, intimidation, harassment and political vendetta against leaders of weaker sections by hitting at their economic roots,” he said.
‘Smear campaign’
Mr. Reddy termed as a ‘smear campaign’ the arrest of Mr. Atchannaidu, who proved himself to be a dynamic legislator from the Opposition, providing critical and constructive suggestions to the government.
TDP district general secretary B. Hari Prasad wondered how a senior leader could be accosted by 300 persons and taken away in the dead of the night, that too when he was recovering from a recent surgery. He called the midnight arrest a ‘sadistic’ move by the government.
