Taking to the Streets

A minor incident of road rage blows into a full scale intra-party war involving some of the heavyweights of the Congress

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IN ARMS: Vishnuvardhan (left) and Santosh being sent to jail

The crowd objected to the honking which, in turn, sparked a heated argument and a scuffle. Later, Sumadhur lodged a complaint with the police that some men tried to strangle his father after beating him mercilessly. He also alleged that the crowd was led by P. Vishnuvardhan Reddy, all-India treasurer of NSUI and son of Janardhan, and Santosh Reddy who is the son-in-law of the firebrand Congress legislator. Within no time, they were picked up by the police.

The roadside skirmish escalated into a full scale intra-Congress war. Predictably, Janardhan upped the ante as his supporters gathered at the Jubilee Hills police station while elsewhere they stoned buses in protest against the arrests—as many as 198 persons were picked up for creating a nuisance. Janardhan’s wife Sulochana Reddy also lodged a counter complaint against Raveendranath and Sumadhur alleging that they had obstructed her car while she was on her way home after attending the gruhapravesam ceremony.

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WAR ZONE: Raveendranath explains the genesis of the fight to the media

With the arrested son and son-in-law of the legislator being sent to jail— under serious charges including attempt to murder—the incident snowballed into a major controversy. “This is brazen harassment. I have not been treated like this even during Telugu Desam Party’s (TDP) rule,” said Janardhan. First he tried to sort out the issue without police intervention, but once the charge of attempt-to-murder was slapped on his son and son-in-law, he changed course. “The street brawl is not the real issue. The chief minister is plotting my ouster from the Congress,” he said, recalling that Rajasekhara was instrumental in his suspension from the party in 2002. Meanwhile, the Andhra Pradesh High Court has stayed the proceedings in the criminal case against Vishnuvardhan and Santosh for six weeks.

With no way out in sight, Raveendranath has offered to withdraw the case if Janardhan goes back on his “unjust” demands. “The attack was neither related to the family nor was political. I am a victim of goondaism and I am seeking action against all those involved,” he said while his brother, the chief minister, played neutral umpire and would say nothing more than “the law will take its own course”.

More than the law, what the Congress is worried about is the fallout of this battle between the party heavyweights in the state. The party high command even asked AICC General Secretary Digvijay Singh to broker a truce, but with both sides remaining adamant, the ace negotiatior’s mission flopped. Whatever be the final outcome, what happened in Hyderabad when the chief minister was away celebrating his 59th birthday in the Maldives is bound to dent the image of the party and leave its scars. That is perhaps the only piece of good news that TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu has had in a long time.

-By Amarnath K. Menon

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