The heat of Andhra Pradesh politics was palpable in the city on Saturday when supporters of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), wearing black shirts, tried to swarm the Metro Rail stations in protest against the arrest of party chief N. Chandrababu Naidu.
The call for a protest titled ‘Let’s Metro for CBN’—by travelling the Metro Rail between Miyapur and LB Nagar wearing black—was given a few days ago on social media.
The protesters, however, had to face a huge posse of police in the Miyapur Metro station.
“They stopped passengers, but we women could somehow enter the station along with other commuters after negotiating with the police,” said P. Tejaswi, a software professional and the president of the professionals’ wing of the TDP.
On the platform, four to five trains passed without stopping, which resulted in the accumulation of 150 protesters, she said. To not inconvenience other passengers, they were finally allowed to board.
“At Ameerpet station, police dragged several passengers wearing black shirts out of the trains and detained them at Madhura Nagar police station,” Ms. Tejaswi said.
She claimed that all the stations enroute were shuttered down, disallowing any passenger to board. At some stations, the ticketing staff refused to issue tickets to passengers wearing black. The train services resumed only at 2.30 p.m., Ms. Tejaswi said.
At LB Nagar, where they were not allowed to take a return journey, the protesters gathered in their thousands and took out a rally shouting slogans against Mr. Chandrababu Naidu’s arrest. Police detained a large number of them at LB Nagar too.
The Madhura Nagar police, in their version, said 16 protesters, most of them software employees, were detained at the Madhura Nagar Metro Rail station, and released later. The LB Nagar police confirmed that 35 people were detained and released.
Meanwhile, supporters of the YSRCP organised a demonstration at KPHB Metro Rail station against the ‘corruption’ of Mr. Chandrababu Naidu. The party issued a press statement later, condemning the protests.
The Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited, through a press statement, alleged that the protesters raised slogans, argued with co-passengers and created nuisance in the train. Due to the ‘illegal’ protests, normal metro train movement was slightly disrupted, which caused inconvenience to the regular commuters, it said. Cases have been registered against some of the protesters, the statement said. This, however, has not been confirmed by the police.
