Congress leaders come to blows at dharna site in Hyderabad

Two senior Congress leaders, one of them a former Rajya Sabha member, rained blows on each other on a public dais in Hyderabad on Saturday, landing the party leadership in an embarrassing situation.

The incident happened at “Dharna Chowk” near Indira Park, right in front of All India Congress Committee general secretary in-charge of Telangana Rama Chandra Khuntia and leaders of other opposition parties, who had assembled there to stage a dharna in protest against the irregularities in the release of Intermediate (Class 11 and 12) examination results recently.

The opposition parties have been staging protests individually and together for the last three weeks. On Saturday, they called for a joint protest.

Former Rajya Sabha member V Hanumantha Rao, who also held the post of Pradesh Congress Committee president in the combined Andhra Pradesh in the past, was addressing the gathering at the protest rally, when Khuntia arrived at the dais.

Rao asked another senior Congress leader Nagesh Mudiraj, who is presently PCC official spokesman, to vacate the seat for Khuntia. This angered Mudiraj, who shouted at Rao and refused to get up. This led to altercation between the two leaders, who freely used foul words against each other.

An agitated Rao slapped and pushed Mudiraj from the dais and the latter immediately got up and pushed the former MP down the dais. Both of them rained blows on each other, even as other leaders intervened and separated them. Yet, they continued exchanging blows and foul words and pushed each other.

The ugly brawl was caught on the cameras of the electronic media who came there to cover the incident while several onlookers filmed the episode on their mobiles and posted it on the social media.

Communist Party of India state secretary Chada Venkata Reddy, Telugu Desam Party state president L Ramana, Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) leader professor M Kodandaram and others immediately brought the situation under control by taking Mudiraj away from the dais.

“It is a very ugly incident. The Congress leaders should settle their internal issues, if any, on their party platforms but, not in public,” Venkat Reddy said.

The leaders later announced that only one representative from every party should be present on the stage.

First Published: May 11, 2019 18:45 IST