Telanga BJP chief Bandi Sanjay arrested; party complains to Governor

The TRS-BJP rivalry flared up ahead of the crucial Munugodu bypoll in Telangana, as state BJP chief Bandi Sanjay, who is on a padayatra in the state, was arrested by the police on Tuesday morning.

The state police also served a notice to Bandi, asking him to stop his ongoing march, stating that he has been giving provocative statements during the Prajasangrama Yatra.

The arrest took place near Jangaon, foiling Bandi's attempt to sit on a “Dharma deeksha.” A scuffle broke out, as Bandi's followers tried to resist the police.

The deeksha was in protest of the police action, arrests and “false cases” on the BJP workers who agitated at Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao's daughter K Kavitha's house on Monday. Delhi BJP leaders have alleged her involvement in the liquor scam, in which Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia is also being accused.

Refuting the allegations, Kavitha, a MLC in Telangana, said that she is being targeted by the BJP as “she is KCR's daughter.”

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Top BJP leaders like party chief JP Nadda condemned the “illegal arrest” of Bandi. “KCR is worried seeing the massive support BJP is receiving from all corners of the state against his corrupt and family centric regime,” Nadda tweeted.

Later in the evening, a delegation of senior Telangana BJP leaders met governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, to draw her attention “to the blatant misuse of police in Telangana, and how the KCR government is trying to muzzle freedom of expression, trying to curb democratic protests.”

The BJP accused the TRS of attacking their party men and trying to disrupt the Prajasangrama yatra during the previous two phases and the ongoing third phase too.

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Accusing the Telangana police of failing in discharging their constitutional responsibility, the BJP leaders said that the cops either remained “mute spectators or tacitly supported the aggressors.”

The BJP said that their supporters who went for a peaceful protest in front of Kavitha's house were “brutally attacked by the police, supported by the TRS goons.”

The BJP has asked the governor to instruct the state police to allow the Prajasangrama Yatra to continue by providing security, and “probe the conspiracy of TRS MLAs, MLCs in attacking the yatra at Janagon and the unwarranted arrest of Bandi.”