Vijayawada: Telugu Desam Party National President and former Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday condemned the arrest of party leaders in his home constituency Kuppam in Andhra Pradesh where Municipal Elections has to be held on November 15.
He urged the State Election Commissioner (SEC) and the state DGP to take immediate steps for the unconditional release of the arrested leaders N Amarnath Reddy and Pulivarthi Venkata Mani Prasad.
Naidu said the police filed false cases and then arrested TDP former Minister N Amarnath Reddy and Tirupati Parliament party in charge Pulivarthi Venkata Mani Prasad.
These midnight arrests were made at the behest of the ruling YSRCP leaders who were aiming at preventing the TDP leaders from the election campaign, he alleged.
In separate letters sent to SEC Nilam Sawhney and DGP Gautam Sawang here, the TDP Chief said that the present elections to 13 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) have turned into a farce and a black mark on democracy in Andhra Pradesh.
The former Chief Minister also alleged that a section of police officials in connivance with the ruling YSRCP has been making all attempts in creating hurdles to Telugu Desam Party (TDP) candidates in order to deter them from contesting elections.
Naidu said it seemed the functioning of the police in the state has been progressively deteriorating under the present YS Jagan Mohan Reddy leadership. Not only did the police file a fake case against TDP leaders campaigning in Kuppam, but had the audacity to arrest two senior leaders of the party from their hotel rooms during midnight hours.
The TDP chief said that the police registered false cases against Amarnath and Prasad on November 8 itself. Instead of arresting them during the daytime, the police chose midnight hours in order to send wrong signals to the opposition leaders.
Describing the current events as a mockery of democracy, Naidu said the present YSRCP regime was reminiscent of British Raj and Police Raj.
Against this backdrop, an appeal is made that the two arrested leaders be released unconditionally.
The police instead of impeding TDP’s campaign should focus on maintaining peace, law and order in order to ensure that the present Municipal elections are conducted peacefully in a democratic manner.
He said that initially, it was local election authorities who had either illegally rejected nominations of TDP candidates or had withdrawn their nominations through forged signatures. Now, it is the police who were conniving with the ruling YSRCP to file false complaints to facilitate midnight arrests in order to prevent TDP leaders from campaigning.
The TDP Chief demanded that stringent action should be taken against the erring officers who were responsible for midnight arrests and for filing fabricated cases to subvert the election process.
