Dejected TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu is raging against the Maharashtra government. After being forced out of Aurangabad and dumped in Hyderabad by state authorities, following his attempt to visit the controversial Babhli irrigation project, Naidu vowed to go to any extent to fight against Maharashtra’s “highhandedness”.
“We were treated inhumanly by them. We were beaten up and kicked by their police,” Naidu said while addressing party members in Hyderabad. “They don’t even know the basic courtesies in treating the public representatives of a neighbouring state. It is jungle law in Maharashtra.”
After their chartered aircraft landed in Hyderabad on Tuesday, Naidu and his companions were taken to a private hospital.
“Almost all of us have some injury. We never saw the police beating anyone like that. It was a nightmare,” said senior TDP leader E Dayakar Rao. The women MLAs (of the Andhra assembly) who were part of the Naidu camp in Babhli have alleged that the Maharashtra police took away their bags, mobile phones and jewellery.
“Many of us also had to leave our footwear behind as we had to run to save ourselves from the police,” MLA Seeta Dayakar said.
Naidu said the Maharashtra police would have killed all of them, but for the support expressed by Andhraites across the border.
But there is not much support for Naidu from the Andhra government. Chief minister K Rosaiah criticised the opposition leader in no uncertain terms. “By not having control on his (Naidu’s) language, he is only creating a huge gap between Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh (AP),” Rosaiah said.
But TDP insiders said the Babhli exercise has strengthened the party in AP. “It is a different thing that we could not go to the Babhli site. But the response in AP is very good and we will continue to take this issue up unless the project is stalled,” a senior TDP leader said.
Meanwhile, an all-party delegation from AP is scheduled to meet prime minister Manmohan Singh on July 26 to discuss the Babhli issue.
