Denied tickets, leaders turn violent

Hyderabad/ Visakhapatnam/
Tirupati/ Karimnagar

March 30: Disgruntled politicians who were denied tickets are posing such a serious threat to parties, that they are now issuing B-forms discreetly to avoid violence. On Monday, the Praja Rajyam leadership had to issue B-forms to 12 candidates secretly.
As soon as the PR general secretary, Mr Allu Aravind, reached Visakhapatnam and checked into a hotel, many aspirants rushed to his room. But Mr Aravind did not reveal anything. He even refused to talk to the Mahila Rajyam leader, Ms P. Ramana Kumari, who wanted the Visakhapatnam North seat. Once the aspirants left, Mr Aravind summoned Mr Vamsi Krishna Yadav, Mr Dhanraj, Ms Shireen Rehman, Mr Chintalapudi Venkataramayya and Mr Panchakarla Ramesh Babu and gave them the B-forms.
Protestors gheraoed Mr Aravind when he went to file his nomination for the Anakapalle Lok Sabha seat.
More drama was witnessed in Pendurthy where the rebel candidates tried to stop Mr Panchakarla Ramesh Babu from filing his nomination. The police had to lathicharge to disperse the crowd.
Defending the party’s act of issuing B-forms in secret, Mr Aravind, said, “We have done this because there is a lot of competition.”
But the PR is not the only party acting secretive. Even the TD and TRS have adopted similar techniques. However, the parties could not completely avoid violence.
At Sircilla, the convoy of Mr K. Taraka Rama Rao, son of the TRS chief, Mr K. Chandrasekhar Rao, was attacked by the supporters of rebel TRS candidate, Mr K. Mahender Reddy. The incident occurred when Mr Rao was returning after filing his nomination for the Sircilla Assembly constituency.
Sources said, Mr Rao’s convoy came across Mr Reddy’s procession. Mr Reddy’s supporters tried to stop Mr Rao’s convoy and even broke the windows of a car.
Supporters of Mr Manohar, the sitting TD MLA, and Mr Ravuri Eshwar Rao, the district TD vice president damaged the party office at Chittoor. Both the leaders resigned from the party for not being given party tickets.
Violence by disgruntled leaders is a new development. In the past, politicians who were denied seats, used to confine themselves to their constituency.
Analysts feel that provocative speeches asking supporters to “fight injustice” is encouraging the cadre to act in an unruly manner when they feel their leaders are wronged.