Telangana Congress chief held ahead of protest at CM's farmhouse

Hyderabad, Dec 27 (IANS) Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee chief A. Revanth Reddy was arrested here on Monday as he was leaving for Erravalli village to lead a protest at the farmhouse of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao.

High tension prevailed outside the residence of Revanth Reddy at Jubilee Hills as scores of his supporters tried to resist their leader's arrest.

As soon as the TPCC chief emerged from his house, police officers stopped him. They forcibly took him to a police vehicle, leading to strong protest from Congress workers who had gathered there. They tried to stop a police vehicle carrying their leader. This led to pushing and jostling between the two sides.

Amid the melee, police shifted Revanth Reddy to a police station.

Revanth Reddy, who is also a Member of Parliament, was placed under house arrest early Monday. Large number of policemen were deployed around Revanth Reddy's house in view of the call given by him to organise Rachabanda programme over what he calls the failure of the state and central governments in procuring paddy from farmers.

Several Congress leaders were either placed under house arrest or were detained while they were heading to Erravalli in Siddipet district from various parts of the state.

Earlier, Revanth Reddy vowed to go ahead with the protest despite restrictions imposed by the police. "Is Erravalli a prohibited area? Why are we being prevented from going to that village?" the Congress leader asked. He claimed that the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government was afraid of their visit.

The TPCC chief slammed both the TRS and BJP over the issue of paddy procurement. He said both the parties have a secret understanding to mislead the farmers.

He claimed that the visit by a delegation of state ministers to Delhi and BJP state president Bandi Sanjay's hunger strike over unemployment were part of the secret understanding between the two parties.

Revanth Reddy had on Sunday released photographs of paddy cultivated at the chief minister's farmhouse. "On one hand the chief minister is saying that the government will not procure paddy from farmers while on the other he has taken up paddy cultivation over 150 acres at his farmhouse," the Congress leader said.

Senior Congress leader Mallu Ravi clarified that they were not going to Erravalli to lay siege to the chief minister's farmhouse but they were still stopped. He said the protest at the village was part of the state-wide programme being organised by the party.

He condemned the arrests of Congress leaders and alleged that the police were acting as KCR's private army.