TDP MLA killed in bomb attack

Telugu Desam Party legislator and former minister, Paritala Ravindra, was killed in a crude bomb attack in Anantapur town on Monday afternoon.

The assailants, lying in wait, hurled bombs at him as soon as he came out of the TDP office in the town after attending a meeting.

He died on the spot, while several others, including his gunmen and private security guards were injured.

Though the police are yet to identify the assailants, Paritala Ravindra's supporters have alleged the hand of his Congress rivals behind the murder.

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They claimed that Congress leader Suryanarayana Reddy, who is undergoing imprisonment in Hyderabad in connection with the Jubilee Hills bomb blast case, masterminded the killing.

Enraged TDP supporters went on the rampage in Anantapur town and several other places in the state setting state transport buses on the fire and forcing shops and business establishments to down shutters.

Paritala Ravindra, Ravi to his supporters, is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter.

Chief Minister Dr Y S Rajasekhar Reddy, Home Minister K Jana Reddy and AP Congress Committee president K Keshav Rao condemned the dastardly killing.

Blaming the Congress government for the killing, TDP president and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu said: "The Congress is resorting to murder politics and we are unable to protect our leaders and cadres from their attacks."

Earlier, in November 1997, an attempt was made on Ravi's life at Jubilee Hills in Hyderabad. In this attack, 25 persons were killed and several others injured, though Ravi and former TDP member of Parliament and film-maker Mohan Babu escaped unhurt.

Ravi was embroiled in controversies ever since his entry into politics in 1994. A former leader of People's War group, he was admitted into TDP by its founder late N T Rama Rao.

Ravi was elected to the state assembly in November 1994 from Penukonda in Anantapur district and served as a cabinet-rank minister in the NTR ministry from December 1994 to August 1995.

He gave up his assembly seat in November 1995, but was re-elected in May 1996. He won the Penukonda seat in 1999 and 2004 elections too.

Ravi wielded a lot of power in the faction-ridden Anantapur district during the decade-long TDP rule. The Congress blamed him for a series of murders of Congress supporters, particularly in  Penukonda and Dharmavaram areas.