Maha withdraws cases, Naidu back in Andhra
In a dramatic development, the Maharashtra government dropped all cases against the Telugu Desam Party president, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, and 65 party MLAs before they reached Aurangabad jail and forced them to board a special flight to Hyderabad on Tuesday night.
The TDP leaders, tired but triumphant, reached Shamshabad Airport at Hyderabad around 10 pm to a tumultuous welcome by hundreds of jubilant yellow flag waving party activists and leaders.
Mr Naidu’s wife Bhuvaneshwari and his son Lokesh were at the airport along with family members of other MLAs to welcome them.
The TDP estimates that the political stock of Mr Naidu had shot up dramatically after his trip to the Babhali project site, the arrest and the confinement.
Maharashtra took the decision to fly back the TDP leaders after hectic parleys with the Centre and the AP government.
Mr Naidu and 70-odd MLAs were arrested on July 16 on the Andhra Pradesh-Maharashtra border village of Bidrelli, about 10 km from the temple town of Basar, when they attempted to go to the site of the Babhali irrigation project.
A local magistrate sentenced them to two days judicial custody and later to seven days till July 26 after they refused to move a bail application.
On Tuesday morning, the police scuffled with the TDP MLAs and forcibly shifted them to a van which sped to Aurangabad. It was believed that they were being taken to a jail but in the end, it turned out to be a tactic of the Maharashtra government to pack them off to Hyderabad.
When the entourage was near Aurangabad, the Nanded superintendent of police filed a petition before the magistrate who sentenced them to judicial remand stating all cases booked against were withdrawn.
The Maharashtra government also kept an aircraft ready and deployed a huge contingent of police around the airport before convoy carrying the TDP leaders reached the airport at 7.30 pm after a gruelling seven-hour journey.
However, Mr Naidu and his MLAs created a scene at the Aurangabad airport for over an hour, staging a dharna on tarmac and refusing to board the flight No. IC 021. They raised slogans against the Maharashtra government and police.
“Our demands are genuine and our stand is correct,” Mr Naidu said. “The police harassed us and also beat up my MLAs. Why did you bring us to the airport? You were supposed to take us to jail.”
He accused the police of playing with the lives of the TDP MLAs who had taken ill because of the stay at the ITI centre.
The police pleaded with Mr Naidu to get into the aircraft since the situation outside was tense. Pro-Babhali irrigation project groups and Shiv Sainiks had reportedly gathered at the Aurangabad jail, where Mr Naidu and his team were supposed to be brought.
When all attempts to persuade Mr Naidu and his team failed, the police swooped on them and forcibly pushed them into the plane.
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