Senior Congress leaders stage dharna

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, JUNE 30. Senior Congress-I leaders staged a dharna before the Mahatma Gandhi statue in the Assembly premises in protest against what they called a `reign of terror' unleashed by the police on the agitators against power tariff hike.The CWC member, Mr. Kotla Vijayabhaskara Reddy, former Chief Ministers Mr. N. Janardhan Reddy, MP, and Mr. N. Bhaskara Rao, the APCC-I president, Mr. M. Satyanarayana Rao, and the leader of the Congress-I Legislature Party (CLP), Dr. Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, were among the leaders who sat at the foot of the statue, unmindful of a heavy downpour, while party activists raised slogans against the Government.

The party dropped the idea of meeting the Director-General of Police (DGP), Mr. H. J. Dora, in the light of his statement in Delhi that Congressmen were involved in the post-bomb blast violence in Guntur town.Mr. Satyanarayana Rao explained that the party leaders had earlier wanted to meet the DGP and request him to direct the police force ``not to heed the illegal orders of the political bosses'' in dealing with the agitators. But, in the wake of a ``blatantly partisan'' attitude exhibited by the DGP, ``we thought no useful purpose would be served in meeting him,'' he said.

A large number of party leaders began assembling at the CLP office even as heavy rain lashed the city since morning. The showers delayed the dharna programme by an hour. As there was no let-up in the rain, senior leaders, holding umbrellas, walked upto the Gandhi statue and squatted on the pedestal. Most of them were drenched in the rain.

After a 30-minute sit-in, Mr. Vijayabhaskara Reddy, Mr. Janardhan Reddy and Mr. Bhaskara Rao left the scene while MLAs and other senior leaders addressed the gathering of partymen.

Mr. Satyanarayana Rao said the Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, pressurised the DGP to issue the statement implicating Congressmen in the Guntur violence so that he can avoid meeting the Congress delegation. He refuted accusations of the TDP and the BJP against the Congress-I, and described them as part of a game to divert public attention from the agitation on the power rates. Lathi blows would not deter his partymen from going ahead with the movement against the tariff hike.

Dr. Rajasekhara Reddy said the DGP was acting as a functionary of the ruling party and not as the police chief.

The former PCC-I president, Mr. V. Hanumantha Rao, said the series of bomb blasts could be the handiwork of the TDP to divert public attention from the on-going stir against the tariff hike.

As many as 72 out of 90 MLAs, two MPs and other senior leaders participated in the dharna.

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