YSR Congress president Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy has alleged that the Congress, the TDP, the State government and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had hatched a conspiracy to get him arrested in the “next three to four days”.
Their game-plan was that the Congress and TDP would create law and order problems and pass the blame on him for the violence. Showing it as an excuse, the government would approach Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan for postponement of the by-elections. There was every possibility of the Governor recommending postponement to the Election Commission of India, he added.
Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy dashed off identical letters to this effect to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi urging them to get to the bottom of the conspiracy and foil it. He also referred to these allegations during his election roadshow in Macherla Assembly constituency in Guntur district when he said that the Governor, the Chief Minister and the Director General of Police had held parleys with those calling the shots in Delhi.
“They are trying to prevent the by-elections from being held as scheduled out of fear of losing security deposits against YSR Congress candidates,” he added.
In his letters, the Kadapa MP alleged that AICC emissary Vayalar Ravi held meetings with Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu, CBI joint director V.V. Lakshminarayana and DGP V. Dinesh Reddy. Meanwhile, Mr. Chandrababu Naidu said in Vizag that the Election Commission take Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy's statement into cognizance and ensure that the by-elections were held without any law and order problems. Addressing a roadshow in Payakaraopet, Mr. Naidu said he did not foresee any turmoil if the Kadapa MP was arrested. The DGP separately denied having met or spoken to Mr. Vayalar Ravi about the political situation.
Security blanket
The police in Hyderabad are planning to throw a security blanket around the Nampally criminal court complex on May 28 when the Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy appears before the CBI special court.
Nearly 20 platoons, in addition to the local law and order police, would be deployed near the court complex to meet any eventuality. Access to the complex would be controlled by the police by erecting check-posts. The police higher-ups reportedly decided not to allow convoys or processions to the complex from any part of the city. “The Task Force teams would be present in and around the court looking out for trouble-mongers,” a police officer said.
