TDP Andhra president arrested for allegedly threatening YSRC leader

The police in Andhra Pradesh’s Srikakulam district on Tuesday arrested former minister and Telugu Desam Party’s state unit president Kinjarapu Atchan Naidu for allegedly threatening and intimidating a YSR Congress party leader at his native village Nimmada a couple of days ago.

The police swooped on the residence of Atchan Naidu, also a lawmaker from Tekkali assembly constituency, early in the morning and took him into custody. They questioned him at the Kotabommali police station for a few hours before producing him in a local court in the afternoon.

The court remanded the TDP leader to 14-day judicial custody. He was later moved to Srikakulam district jail. He is expected to file a bail petition in a day or two.

The police acted on a complaint by the YSR Congress party leaders that Atchan Naidu had threatened and intimidated a sarpanch candidate supported by their party asking him to withdraw his nomination in Nimmada village.

While Atchan Naidu’s wife Vijaya Madhavi also filed her nomination for the sarpanch post, a YSRC leader has roped in his cousin, Kinjarapu Appanna, as a rival candidate for the same post.

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Appanna alleged that Atchan Naidu had threatened him with dire consequences if he did not withdraw his nomination. However, the TDP leaders claimed that Atchan Naidu had only tried to convince Appanna to drop out from the contest.

On Saturday, the last day of nominations, both TDP and YSRC leaders entered into an altercation at Nimmadda. The Kotabommali police booked cases against 22 people including Atchan Naidu.

Strongly condemning the arrest of Atchan Naidu, TDP president and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu accused the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government of resorting to vindictive politics against the TDP leaders.

He alleged that the YSRC leaders were unleashing a reign of terror in the otherwise peaceful north-coastal Andhra districts of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam.

He pointed out that YSRC leader in-charge of Tekkali assembly constituency Duvvada Srinivas, along with his followers, came to Nimmada village brandishing rods, knives and axes and openly threatened the TDP cadres. Yet, the police did not file any case against him, but foisted cases against Atchan Naidu based on false complaints, he alleged.