Telangana BJP chief under house arrest as cops thwart protest

E-PaperSubscribeSubscribeEnjoy unlimited accessSubscribe Now! Get features like The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Telangana unit’s chief, N Ramchander Rao, was on Saturday placed under house arrest to prevent him from joining a protest march till chief minister A Revanth Reddy’s official Jubilee Hills residence to stage a protest against the defeat of the 131st constitutional amendment bill in Parliament on Friday, people aware of the matter said. Telangana BJP chief under house arrest as cops thwart protestScores of BJP workers from the party’s women’s wing and other right-wing activists who attempted to go ahead with the march were also detained and released later in the afternoon, they added. Speaking to reporters at his residence, which witnessed heavy deployment of police early in the day, Rao alleged that the Congress was an “anti-women” party and trapped within a “slave mentality” towards the service of a single family. “The Congress is adopting double standards. While the party supported the Women’s Reservation Bill in 2023, its latest vote against it exposes a deep-seated bias against ordinary women entering politics,” Rao said. He also dismissed the Congress’s arguments regarding North-South divides and “hybrid formulas” as mere distractions designed to derail the core issue of 33% reservation for women. “For the last 30 years, Congress has delayed this justice. They fear that if ordinary women rise, their family-centric politics will collapse,” Rao remarked and urged the women of Telangana to remember this “betrayal”. Meanwhile, in Andhra Pradesh, chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu took part in a protest rally over the matter at Nidadavole in East Godavari district. The rally was organised by NDA alliance partners, with Naidu joining leaders from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Jana Sena Party. Several prominent leaders, including BJP state president PVN Madhav, ministers Kandula Durgesh and Nimmala Ramanaidu, and senior leader Somu Veerraju, participated in the demonstration. Addressing the gathering, Naidu described Friday as a “dark day in the history of Indian democracy.” He accused opposition parties of betraying women, and demanded that they apologise to women, stating that political groups treating women merely as a vote bank were undermining democratic values. “The opposition has effectively erased a three-decade-long aspiration for women’s reservation through their actions,” he said. Srinivasa Rao is Senior Assistant Editor based out of Hyderabad covering developments in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana . He has over three decades of reporting experience.