The YSR Congress leaders braced for a showdown with the Guntur police after the latter refused permission for Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy’s indefinite fast, scheduled for September 26 at the Wolf Hall Grounds opposite A.C. College.
A day after being refused permission, the YSRC leaders went into a huddle at their party office on Thursday and decided not to back down. It is learnt that Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy is bent upon going ahead with his indefinite fast in support of special category status for Andhra Pradesh.
“Mr. Jagan will launch the protest at the same venue. We will not be intimidated by these coercive tactics,’’ said a senior YSRC leader.
The party’s general secretary Y. Vijaya Sai Reddy, senior leaders Botsa Satyanarayana and Marri Rajasekhar called on Guntur police range inspector-general N. Sanjay and urged him to give the no-objection certificate’ (NOC) for the programme as scheduled.
“We first sought formal permission on September 13 and mentioned three possible locations but the police refused permission at all the places. We gave another letter on September 19 seeking an NOC for the programme at Wolf Hall and we also paid the user charges for the ground. We have been denied permission for this too without any valid reason,’’ Mr. Satyanarayana said.
On Thursday morning, the Guntur police served a second notice on the YSRC leaders, stating grounds for the denial of permission. The first notice was served on September 21.
The police have cited traffic hassles, possible law and order problems, disruption of public order and lack of parking space as the main reasons.
The second notice said, “It is illegal and unethical to allow a person do something that endangers his life. The police have a basic duty to protect the life and property of citizens,’’ Guntur superintendent of police Sarva Srestha Tripathi said.
