Sangareddy, November 09: Tension prevailed on the outskirts of Zaheerabad when over 1,000 supporters of Karnataka Chief Minister Yeddyurappa proceeding towards Hyderabad where rebel BJP MLAs were camping were detained by the police. The dissidence has thrown Karnataka government into crisis.
T he police swung into action on information that Yeddyurappa loyalists from Bidar and Gulbarga districts were on their way to Hyderabad reportedly to vent their anger against 52 dissident MLAs of the party camping there for over 10 days.
According to BJP sources, Yeddyurappa’s supporters were planning to confront the rebel MLAs at the hotel where they were staying in support of Reddy brothers — G Janardhan Reddy and G Karunakar Reddy — who have been demnding change of leadership in Karnataka.
Fearing security problem in Hyderabad due to the large number of party activists storming the city, orders were issued that Medak district police obstruct them on the borders.
Led by Zaheerabad CI P Sridhar Reddy and Sangareddy DSP Sunkari Satyanarayana, police camped on the district borders since this morning and halted the large number of vehicles in which the 52 chief minister’s loyalists were travelling.
Not even one person belonging to Yeddyurappa’s group was let into the district.
Only a couple of vehicles were found at Zaheerabad in the morning but after 9 a.m., more than 200 vehicles reached the outskirts of Zaheerabad.
And the activists had an argument with the police on why were they being obstructed from meeting their party legislators and celebrating party senior leader L K Advani’s birthday.
The BJP activists even raised slogans against the dissident MLAs and criticised them for not being in Karnataka when people were hit by floods. They wondered what were they doing in Hyderabad.
As the BJP activists stay put at Zaheerabad till 3 p.m. in the afternoon, the police held all of them and shifted them to Chiragpalli police station.
A case was registered against the party activists under Section 151 and they were released on personal sureties later in the evening.
Those arrested included Karnataka Forest Board chairman Shankar Gound, former MLA Subash Kallur, Mahila Morcha State president Sakuntala, Karnataka State Sugarcane Development Board chairman Babu Rao Alli and others.
Speaking to mediapersons, Shankar Goud and Subash criticised the BJP MLAs for neglecting the people and camping in Hyderabad while the people in their State were rendered shelterless due to floods.
They said majority of the MLAs and people in the State were in favour of Yeddyurappa.
They warned the dissident MLAs that they would have to face the wrath of the people if they did not tour their flood-hit constituencies.
–Agencies