The police threw a massive security blanket in and around the Telangana State Assembly in an effort to thwart the Left parties and their allied organisations from participating in the ‘Chalo Assembly’ programme on Wednesday.
A see-saw battled continued among the Left parties activists and the police teams at different places in the city and the outskirts as the former surfaced in groups at different points in their quest to reach the Assembly hoodwinking the latter.
Yet, thus far the police have managed to make arrests at different places including at RTC crossroads, Bagh Lingampally, Osmania University and also near the party offices of the CPI and CPM whenever a crowd gathered.
Earlier in the day, Revolutionary Writers Association’s Varavara Rao, academicians P.L. Viveswara Rao, G. Vinod Kumar and others were taken into preventive custody. The police also put up barricades on all the entry roads into the capital and arrested those coming from the districts to take part in the agitation.
There was mild tension at Sundarayya Vignana Kendram, Bagh Lingampally, where the Left parties activists were expected to congregate for the agitational programme when leaders Chada Venkat Reddy and Tammineni Veerabhadram staged an impromptu sit in on the main road to protest against the arrests of their cadre.
At Osmania University also, the police had a tough time in preventing repeated surges from the students groups from getting out of the campus for taking out a rally. With massive deployment of personnel at all key intersections with mobile parties, the police have managed not to let a single activist to reach anywhere near the Assembly which usually is out of bounds when in session.
