Tense moments were witnessed when members of Automobile Technicians’ Association threw chairs at the car in which Vijayawada MP Lagadapati Rajagopal came to pro-Samaikyandhra dharna venue at Autonagar in Vijayawada on Saturday.
The Vijayawada MP — shaken by the opposition of members of the association — sat at the venue for some time amid tight security with police personnel closely guarding the MP, as the automobile technicians wanted Mr. Rajagopal to resign from the Lok Sabha immediately and then join their agitation.
Slogans of ‘MP Go Back’, ‘Resign from your Lok Sabha Seat and then come to our relay-fast venue’ began as soon as the MP along with his followers arrived at the venue at about 11.30 a.m. The technicians’ association members did not allow Mr. Rajagopal to come on the dais at Autonagar and tried to stop his car. The police, however, cleared the way by disbursing the crowd.
While the MP tried to come out of his car, the agitators threw plastic chairs on the car. The MP sat at the venue for some time to show his solidarity for the technicians. The police, however, persuaded the MP to leave the venue when things started getting out of control.
Lagadapati Rajagopal, who was to visit three different agitation venues in the city, had to leave the Autonagar venue, where the Autonagar Technicians’ Association had been continuing a relay-fast and dharna for the past 50 days.
Meanwhile, the Samaikyandhra Political JAC leader and former PCC secretary Kolunukonda Sivaji has demanded the Vijayawada MP to get his resignation ratified by the Lok Sabha Speaker on September 24 in New Delhi and then come to Vijayawada.
He took strong exception to the MP trying to hog the limelight by creating such a flutter and forcefully coming to the Samaikyandhra venue, where the agitation was going on peacefully.
The Telugu Desam Party district president Devineni Umamaheswara Rao also criticised the MP for allegedly trying to infuse violence into the Samaikyandhra agitation. He sought answers on several issues raised on the loans raised by his company.
