Congress leaders were put under house arrest after the party announced its support to the Chalo Tank Bund programme of the Joint Action Committee of RTC unions on their demands.
All senior leaders were not allowed to come out of their residences while some young leaders were picked up and moved to different police stations to foil any attempt to reach the Tank Bund.
CLP leader Bhatti Vikramarka was plased under house arrest and Sangareddy MLA T. Jayaprakash Reddy was arrested at Jubilee Hills check-post and shifted to Jubilee Hills police station as he was headed to Tank Bund. Young leader Vikram Goud was arrested from his residence and was also shifted to Jubilee Hills police station.
Former minister Shabbir Ali was not allowed to leave his house since morning while City Congress chief Anjan Kumar Yadav was picked up and shifted to a police station.
Others who were prevented from leaving their residence included TPCC working president Ponnam Prabhakar, former minister J. Geeta Reddy and former MP Konda Vishweshwer Reddy.
Later in the evening, Mr. Vikramarka convened a meeting of senior leaders at Gandhi Bhavan where they discussed the ‘repression’ of the government on democratic protests. The meeting accused the government of being afraid of even minor protests by the people.
Mr. Vikramarka said that it had become a regular phenomenon to arrest Congress leaders from village-level to State leadership whenever there is a democratic protest by the party or any section of society. He said Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao seem to be living in constant fear and his suppressive tactics is an indication of it.
The meeting attended by senior leaders K. Jana Reddy, V. Hanumantha Rao, Damodar Rajanarsimha, Ponnam Prabhakar, S.A. Sampath Kumar, Ch. Vamshichand Reddy, Kusum Kumar and others.
