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Syed Amin Jafri in Hyderabad
The leader of the opposition and floor leader of the Andhra Pradesh Congress Legislature Party, Dr Y S Rajasekhar Reddy, alleged that the just-concluded panchayat polls in Andhra Pradesh witnessed the killing of 17 Congress activists by their Telugu Desam rivals.
Over 100 Congress workers were also injured in the attacks by the ruling partymen, he claimed.
Reiterating his demand for a judicial probe into all these incidents, Dr Reddy also sought payment of ex-gratia of Rs 500,000 to next of kin of those killed. He demanded that cases should be booked against the ruling party functionaries and erring policemen under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, as most of the victims happened to be dalits.
Dr Reddy told rediff.com on Tuesday that the Congress would take these attacks by the Telugu Desam men very seriously.
"In the panchayat elections, the ruling party resorted to all and sundry methods to win over or terrorise the Congress activists in several places. Faced with disappointing results in these polls, the Telugu leadership has let loose a reign of terror and encouraging the party cadres to eliminate Congress workers," he alleged.
The Congress leader said that seven party members were murdered by TDP rivals in Anantapur district.
Two activists each were killed in Nalgonda and Adilabad districts and one each in Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, West Godavari, Prakasam, Mahbubnagar and Khammam.
The other victims included A Venkaiah (Khammam), M Veeranna (West Godavari), Pulla Reddy, Osman, Konda Reddy, Krishna Reddy and two others (Anantapur), B Nagi Reddy and S Anthi Reddy (Nalgonda), V Gali Reddy (Prakasam), Motiram and C Charmaiah (Adilabad) and K Somulu (Vizianagaram).
Dr Reddy alleged that, besides eliminating Congress activists, the ruling Telugu Desam cadres have launched attacks on weaker sections for supporting the Congress at various places.
He alleged that two tribal women of Nagili Tanda in Nalgonda district were raped for supporting the Congress.
He claimed dalits in Chirragunta village in Adilabad and a village in Chitveli mandal in Cuddapah district were 'ostracised' for voting for the Congress.
The police were also a party to such attacks in some places, he alleged.
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