Post date: Jan 10, 2011 6:57:21 AM
Congress MP Jaganmohan Reddy was taken into preventive custody today after clashes between those for and against his proposed yatra in Warangal. He was later released on personal bond, but angry supporters had already set two coaches of the Padmavati Express on fire at Tirupati station in protest against the arrest.
And Jagan said, "Today they are arresting and taking me away. But I will be back very soon to personally meet and express my condolences to all those families who lost a member."
Defying a directive from the party leadership, the Congress MP set out on Friday morning for his proposed six-day "odarpu yatra" to console 77 families that had lost members after the death of his father, YSR, in a helicopter crash last year. These were people in 72 villages of Warangal who either allegedly committed suicide or died of heart attack on hearing of the former Chief Minister's death.
Jagan boarded the Intercity Express at Secunderabad and was to alight at Mahbubabad in Warangal district, but the train was delayed by several hours, with rumours of a bomb being planted and railway lines being disrupted at several points. The train was stopped at Wanganpalli and from there the police took Jagan into preventive custody. The Andhra Pradesh DGP told NDTV they could not allow Jagan to continue with his yatra in view of the law and order situation.
For by 10 am, Jagan's destination, Mahbubabad town, had turned into a virtual war-zone. Those opposing Jagan's yatra gathered in huge numbers at the railway station, determined to not let the yatra happen. The over 3000 policemen deployed to keep matters under control, looked far outnumbered.
Supporters of Konda Surekha who resigned as minister from the Rosaiah cabinet to express support for Jagan, clashed with pro-Telangana groups, who are opposing the Congress MP's yatra. Mobs threw stones and smashed cars.
Yesterday, a bomb was found abandoned in a Mahbubabad market place, along with a note signed by the Telangana Liberation Army, warning of trouble if Jagan went ahead with his yatra. One man tried to immolate himself, another reportedly slashed his own throat to focus attention on the anger of the pro-Telangana people with Jagan's political stand for a united Andhra Pradesh.
The decision to stop Jagan was taken after a security review meeting that Chief Minister K Rosaiah held with home minister Sabita Indra Reddy and top police officers, after his return from a wedding in Nellore.
Till then, Rosaiah had been insisting matters will not get out of hand even though worried citizens are wondering why Jagan was not stopped, if necessary by using force or by arrest, from stepping out for his yatra. Others argue that the demand for Telangana if for a separate state, not a separate country, so why should Jagan need permission to travel to any part of it?
The Central leadership had explicitly asked Jagan not to undertake the yatra in a charged situation. "The high command does not approve of it (the yatra). It is not desirable to go there at present. I have told him not to go ahead with the yatra," Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily, in-charge of party affairs in Andhra Pradesh, had said on Thursday.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi has meanwhile called Praja Rajyam party chief Chiranjeevi to discuss Rajya Sabha seats. A possible Cong-PRP tie-up is significant in the context of Jagan's defiance.