A local TRS leader created a ruckus on the stage from where Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma was addressing the Ganesh nimajjanam revellers in Hyderabad on Friday.
The person identified as Nand Kishore Vyas, wearing a pink scarf – a colour identified with the TRS party – managed to barge onto the stage set up at the Mozamjahi Market, breaching the CM's security and setting off the alarm.
Sarma was in the city to attend the Ganesh Shobha Yatra, the grand procession of thousands of Ganesh idols taken for immersion in lake bodies like the Hussain Sagar aka Vinayaka Sagar, at the invitation of Bhagyanagar Ganesh Utsav Samithi.
Vyas snatched the mic away from Dr Bhagavanth Rao, BGUS general secretary, and tried to aggressively confront Sarma, who was visibly surprised by the sudden act but maintained calm. The accompanying BGUS leaders and CM's guards overpowered him quickly and packed him off the stage. The Hyderabad police took him into custody.
Earlier, Sarma offered prayers in the Bhagyalakshmi temple at the communally sensitive Charminar area. The small shrine in the AIMIM-dominated old city has become the Telangana BJP's rallying point in the city since the GHMC elections in 2020.
Sarma has hit out at the TRS regime, accusing chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao of promoting dynastic politics. “A government should function for the benefit of the nation, its people, but not for a family,” Sarma reportedly said.
TRS minister Talasani Srinivas found fault with Sarma making political comments while he was in the city to attend a religious event. The TRS leaders accused the BJP of trying to vitiate the city's serene atmosphere.
The TRS and BJP are on a combative course ahead of the Telangana assembly polls next year.
In February, the two CMs had a spat over Sarma's response to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's questioning of India's surgical strikes in Pakistan.
KCR stated his Assam counterpart's questioning of “Rahul's parentage” as "shameful, going against the Hindu culture and Indian traditions", and demanded the BJP-Modi to sack Sarma.
Sarma hit back saying that KCR is competing with the Congress leaders “to prove loyalty to the Gandhi family.”