TDP leaders offer Pongallu to Gangamma during protest
The Hindu
TDP leaders offer Pongallu to Goddess Gangamma Thalli to invoke divine intervention against YSRCP govt.
Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leaders, who are on a relay hunger strike to protest against the ‘illegal’ arrest of their party President N. Chandrababu Naidu, resorted to a ‘novel’ demonstration by offering Pongallu to Goddess Gangamma Thalli on Sunday.
The 29th day of the protest at the party office marked the presence of more women protesters at the camp, who arranged seven bricks as the Gangamma Thalli. Rice and pulses cooked in pots were offered to the Goddess. Leading the demonstration, former MLA M. Sugunamma said the idea was to invoke a ‘divine intervention’ and drive sense into the ‘authoritarian’ YSRCP government.
TUDA former Chairman and Tirupati parliamentary constituency in-charge G. Narasimha Yadav, MCT corporator R.C. Munikrishna and city TDP President D. Bhaskar Yadav demanded the CID to produce evidence in support of the charges made against their leader or retract the case. They hoped that Mr. Naidu would walk unscathed out of the slew of cases ‘deliberately slapped against him in a vindictive manner’.
While residents are worried over deaths due to diarrhoea in Vijayawada, officials still grapple to find the root cause. Contaminated drinking water supplied by VMC officials is the reason, insist people in the affected areas, but officials insist that efforts are on to identify the disease and that those with symptoms other than diarrhoea too are visiting the health camps.