Protests erupted on Saturday against the injustice allegedly meted out by the Central government to Andhra Pradesh on the eve of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Guntur. This led to the TDP and the BJP trading charges and a delegation of the national ruling party lodging a complaint with R.P. Thakur, DGP, against hoardings which read ‘Modi No Entry’ and ‘Modi Never Again’.
The cadre of the TDP, the Left parties, the ‘Pratyeka Hoda Sadhana Samiti’ and other civil society organisations took to the streets and shouted ‘Modi Go Back’ holding him responsible for the plight of Andhra Pradesh. Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu set the tone for the protests by exhorting the people through a teleconference to expose the BJP-led NDA government’s failure in implementing the Reorganisation Act and turning down the State’s plea for the Special Category Status (SCS).
The critics of the BJP had displayed massive hoardings at some places near the Gannavaram airport but they were removed later. A banner that surfaced in Vijayawada city which depicted Mr. Naidu as shooting an arrow at the BJP leaders and Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhara Rao had created a flutter. The protesters took motorcycle rallies in the city holding black flags.
A large number of activists of the CPI and the CPI (M) and their associated organisations broke earthen pots at the Lenin Centre deploring Mr. Modi’s indifferent attitude to the suffering of the State.
State BJP president Kanna Lakshminarayana told media persons at the meeting venue that Mr. Naidu had instructed the police and the transport departments to foil the PM’s meeting which was aimed at putting facts before the public.
The meeting would be a grand success in spite of the conspiracy hatched by the TDP government to prevent the BJP from revealing his true colours, he said.
At a press conference in Vijayawada, MP G.V.L. Narasimha Rao said Mr. Naidu had lost credibility having earlier dismissed the SCS as useless and taking a U-turn on various issues.