Tension gripped the Prakasam Bhavan area here on Monday as workers of the Bharatiya Janata Party allegedly beat up a social activist who raised the demand for grant of the Special Category Status (SCS) to Andhra Pradesh by the Centre.
The activist showed a placard to press the demand and raised slogans in support of the SCS as the motorcade of BJP State president Kanna Lakshminarayana came close to the busy Church centre.
The BJP activists allegedly assaulted him even as the latter maintained that ‘SCS is the birth right of Andhra Pradesh’.
The police personnel present at the spot swiftly whisked away the activist, M.Srinivas, to safety.
Later, Ongole II Town police registered a case against BJP activists on a complaint from Mr. Srinivas.
Later, Mr.Lakshminarayana justified the act of the BJP activists saying that BJP national president Amit Shah, Somu Veerraju and other BJP leaders, including himself, were physically targeted on several occasions in the past by TDP men.
“This is not the way to raise the demand. I am ready to take petitions if they are presented in a proper manner,” he said, adding that he would ask the BJP cadre to observe restraint.
Flays media
Mr.Lakshminarayana lost his cool when newsmen at a media conference repeatedly asked him about the BJP’s poll promise to provide SCS for 10 years as against 5 years announced by the Congress-led UPA government and accused the media of being ‘partisan’.
He also dismissed as ‘politically-motivated’ the demand for the SCS raised by various parties in the State, alleging that it was done with an eye on the coming elections.
With no positive agenda to go to the people, the TDP was trying to project the BJP as a ‘culprit’ before the people by blaming the Centre for all the woes of the State, he said.
After accepting the Centre’s offer to provide special assistance measure (SAM), including financial support for externally-aided projects in lieu of the SCS, Chief Minister N.Chandrababu Naidu had done a flip-flop to cover up his ‘failures’ on all fronts, he alleged.
The one-point agenda of the TDP was to resort to a ‘smear campaign’ against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, YSR Congress chief Y.S.Jagan Mohan Reddy and actor-politician Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena Party, he contended.
Denying any ‘secret understanding’ among them, he said, “Our party president (Amit Shah) has amply made it clear the BJP will contest on its own in Andhra Pradesh.’’
