Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president and former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu is going to stage a 36-hour demonstration in protest against Tuesday’s attacks on his party offices and leaders’ houses, from 8 a.m. of October 21 till 8 p.m. the next day calling them acts of ‘State-sponsored terrorism’. The protest will be held at the TDP headquarters near Mangalagiri in Guntur district.
Mr. Chandrababu Naidu said in a press release that the ransacking of the State party office, the residence of spokesman K. Pattabhiram (whose comments on the Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy sparked the outrage) and the offices/houses of various leaders by the YSR Congress (YSRC) cadres was a major conspiracy that should be exposed by the police.
Mr. Chandrababu Naidu alleged that the government and police colluded with each other to intimidate the TDP leaders by resorting to physical attacks. By doing so, they jeopardised democracy.
He said the attack on TDP State office near Mangalagiri was unprecedented. Never in the past in Andhra Pradesh had the headquarters of the main Opposition party been plundered.
It was a pre-planned attack intended to warn the TDP leaders on the consequences of speaking up against the government, Mr. Naidu added, calling upon other Opposition parties, civil society organisations and the people to support the TDP’s fight against the government’s autocratic functioning and the objectionable demeanour of the ruling party leaders.
