Old rivalry between the Vangaveeti and Devineni families was on the brink of raising its ugly head once again in Vijayawada on Friday, but timely intervention by the police prevented any untoward incident.
A clash at the Benz Circle was averted between YSR Congress leader Vangaveeti Radhakrishna, son for former fiery Congress leader Vangaveeti Mohan Ranga, and TDP youth wing leader Devineni Chandrasekhar, nephew of Congress leader Devineni Rajasekhar alias Nehru. Trouble began when supporters of Mr. Radhakrishna were burning an effigy of Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde near Mohan Ranga’s statue on the MG Road, as part of the bandh called in protest against the Cabinet’s approval of the draft Telangana Bill.
At the same time, Mr. Chandrasekhar led a motorcycle rally in support of Samaikyandhra to the same spot and tried to downplay the effigy burning.
Mr. Radhakrishna was watching the episode from the terrace of his house and as the motorcycles took a turn and left the place, he came down and entered into an argument with the police personnel and questioned the act of the TDP youth wing supporters.
He mobilised his supporters and proceeded towards Benz Circle, where he was stopped by the police force.
When the police personnel tried to reason with him, he once again entered into an argument. As things were turning out of control, Mr. Chandrasekhar tried to reach Benz Circle from the Eluru Road side.
Assistant Commissioner of Police D.V. Nageswara Rao whisked away the TDP youth wing leader to Penamuluru police station in a jiffy. At the same time Governorpet police station SHO Mahendra escorted Mr. Radhakrishna to the police station. The ACP said that both were taken into preventive custody to ward off any untoward incident, as the clash was heading towards a personal rivalry and had nothing to do with the bandh call or Samaikyandhra agitation.
