Heartburn over seat sharing among parties in AP

Scores of irate Bharatiya Janata Party workers on Thursday afternoon ransacked the party's state office at Chikkadpally in Hyderabad, protesting against the 'bartering away' of the Malakpet assembly seat to the party's electoral ally, the ruling Telugu Desam Party.

Angry workers descended on the party office, raised slogans against the state BJP leaders, broke window panes, upturned flower pots and destroyed the furniture even as the office staff ran for cover.

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"Our state leaders are bending over backwards to accommodate the TDP," a BJP functionary said before trying to inflict injuries on himself with a knife. Other workers prevented him from doing so.

On receipt of information about the commotion at the BJP office, police rushed to the spot and forcibly evicted the demonstrators from the premises. However, the protestors prevailed on the police saying, "It is our internal matter."

Another group of party workers complained that the state leaders had 'surrendered' Mahbubnagar Lok Sabha seat to the TDP only to deny former MP A P Jitendra Reddy an opportunity to seek re-election.  

For the second consecutive day, party workers also held noisy demonstrations outside the residence of senior leader and Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya.

Meanwhile, TDP workers organised demonstrations, dharnas and raasta rokos at Peddapalli, Kamareddy and other places in protest against allotment of seats to BJP under the seat-sharing arrangement. They burnt TDP flags at Peddapalli and staged a raasta roko at Kamareddy.

Similar protests were witnessed at the Congress state headquarters - Gandhi Bhavan - and at the Telangana Rashtra Samithi's office in the city. Hundreds of workers descended at Gandhi Bhavan expressing displeasure at the seat sharing arrangement with the TRS and Left parties.

TRS supporters, on the other hand, accused its leaders of 'surrendering' the party's 'strongholds' to the Congress.