A tense situation prevailed at Taruva village of Devarapalli mandal of Anakapalli district on Saturday following clash between the supporters of Mr. Budi Mutyala Naidu, Deputy Chief Minister and YSRCP nominee for Anakapalli Lok Sabha constituency, and TDP-JSP-BJP alliance candidate C.M. Ramesh.
Taruva is the native village of Mr. Mutyala Naidu.
Tension prevailed when some supporters of Mr. Ramesh were allegedly attacked by supporters of Mr. Mutyala Naidu for allegedly operating drones to hoist the BJP flag at Taruva as part of their election campaign on behalf of TDP-JSP-BJP alliance.
One of the injured has been identified as Ch. Gangadhar, the brother-in-law of Mr. Mutyala Naidu and maternal uncle of Budi Ravi Kumar (son of Mutyala Naidu). It may be mentioned that Mr. Ravi Kumar had differences with his father over not selecting him as a political successor and not considering his name for the Chodavaram Assembly segment. Mr. Mutyala Naidu considered Mr. Ravi Kumar’s half-sister E. Anuradha for the segment and she is contesting on the YSRCP ticket.
Mr. Ramesh and Mr. Naidu reached the village with their supporters. A police complaint was also lodged by the supporters of both the leaders at the Devarapalli police station.
Police teams sent to the village to prevent any untoward incident.
A police official told The Hindu on Saturday, “Yes, there was a clash over the drone operation in the village. We have brought the situation under control. The investigation is on.”
A supporters of Mr. Ramesh’s said, “Mr. Ramesh had permission to use the drones for hoisting the party flags during his campaigns everywhere, even including at the recent Pawan Kalyan’s roadshow in Anakapalli.”
