HYDERABAD, India, 4 February 2008 — Scores of Congress and Youth Congress activists yesterday attacked the house of party MP Chegondi Venkata Harirama Jogaiah at Madhapur on the city’s outskirts, demanding his resignation for criticizing Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy. The incident took the MP from Narsapur in India’s Andhra Pradesh state by surprise and he promptly lodged a complaint with the police alleging an attempt to murder him. The police detained 23 Congress party activists and charged them with rioting, trespass and mischief causing damage to property. They were taken to the Madhapur police station but released on bail.
The attack followed Jogaiah’s criticism of the chief minister. Jogaiah had released the copy of a letter he wrote to Congress President Sonia Gandhi claiming that it was “Rajasekhar Reddy’s Congress that was ruling the state and not the Indian National Congress.” He urged Sonia to restrain Reddy and alleged that the Congress government in the state was neck deep in corruption.
He said the chief minister could even become a threat to the central leadership in course of time.
