Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief and former Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu, who is under house arrest amid protests against the ruling YSRCP, warned that government was violating human rights and fundamental rights by detaining him and other party leaders.
Warning the Jagan Reddy government and the Police, Naidu said, “You cannot play this type of politics. You cannot control us by arresting. Whenever they allow me, I will continue ‘Chalo Atmakur’ rally.
The TDP chief’s remarks came as the police locked the main gate of his residence at Undavalli in Amaravati after he attempted to leave for his party’s ‘Chalo Atmakur’ rally, despite being put under preventive custody.
The protest march has been called by the TDP over alleged attacks on their cadres by the ruling YSRCP leaders.
“It is a black day in the history of the state. We have been denied the right to give moral support to those who were victimized by the ruling party cadres. All that we wanted to do was to take out a rally and send the victims back to their villages. I don’t understand how it would lead to law and order breakdown,” Naidu was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.
Meanwhile, The Andhra Pradesh Police has put Naidu’s son Nara Lokesh and several TDP leaders under house arrest in view of the party’s call for the protest rally.
TDP leader Nara Lokesh, speaking to news agency ANI, said that the ruling party is trying to “strangulate” his party across Andhra Pradesh.
“We were doing our activities in a democratic manner but our entire leadership was put under house arrest. This is the murder of democracy,” Lokesh said.
“This is dictatorship, we are being stopped in an undemocratic way. TDP leaders and workers are being harassed. YSRCP MLAs are openly threatening us, saying police is with them,” he was further quoted as saying by ANI.
Earlier in the day, Andhra Pradesh Director General of Police Damodar Goutam Sawang had said, “Opposition leader of Andhra Pradesh N Chandrababu Naidu is being taken into preventive custody as his actions are increasing tensions and creating disturbance to law and order in the Palnadu region of Guntur district.”
Tension prevailed around Naidu’s house as TDP leaders coming to meet him were prevented from entering the house.
Meanwhile, Chandrababu Naidu is on day-long hunger strike from 8 am to 8 pm.
During a teleconference with party leaders, Chandrababu Naidu asked them to protest wherever they were stopped by the administration.
TDP has alleged that its eight workers were killed in the attacks by YSRCP leaders, most of them in Palnadu region. It claimed that 500 TDP activists and sympathisers were attacked since the announcement of election results in May.