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TRS vows to stall Rahul visit to Osmania
On Monday, the Telangana Congress workers burnt the effigy of TRS president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao holding him responsible for the Osmania University authorities denying permission for Rahul Gandhi’s visit to the campus.
Amid a row over Rahul Gandhi’s visit to the Osmania University (OU) in Hyderabad, the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) workers vowed not to allow him to enter the campus on Tuesday.
On Monday, the Telangana Congress workers burnt the effigy of TRS president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao holding him responsible for the OU authorities denying permission for Gandhi’s visit to the campus.
Members of the TRS Vidyarthi (TRSV), a student wing of the TRS, responded by burning the effigy of the Congress leader on Tuesday.
Scores of TRSV activists assembled in front of the Arts College campus and raised slogans against Gandhi and Congress, before burning his effigy. They were detained by the university police and released later in the evening.
“Rahul Gandhi has no moral right to enter the OU campus. He had never called on the students when they had suffered lathi blows during the movement for a separate Telangana movement. He should tender an unconditional apology to the students. There is no question of allowing him into the campus,” a TRSV leader said.
On Monday, OU vice-chancellor D Ravinder Yadav once again rejected the application of the Congress seeking permission to hold a meeting of Rahul Gandhi with the students at the Tagore Auditorium on the university campus on May 7.
The state high court, which acted on a petition of the Congress leaders, left it to the discretion of the Vice-Chancellor on whether or not to permit Rahul Gandhi to meet.
Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president A Revanth Reddy said the party would arrange Gandhi’s meeting on the OU campus, and the TRS government alone would be responsible if any untoward incidents took place during his visit.
On Sunday, as many as 17 members of the National Student Union of India (NSUI), including their state unit president Venkat Balmoor, were arrested and remanded to Chanchalguda jail for 14 days after they attempted to barge into the V-C’s office, breaking window panes in the process.
Revanth Reddy called on the students in the jail and said Gandhi would visit them in Chanchalguda during his visit on May 7, a day after addressing a public meeting in Warangal on May 6.
