The mass plantation programme Vana Deeksha, organised by the Hydera-bad Metro Rail Ltd, at LB Nagar on Saturday turned into a political battlefield with senior Congress leaders displaying their “group rivalry” in the open and their supporters resorting to attacks on each other.
The political drama disrupted traffic on the national highway with their supporters sitting in dharna demanding that the police book cases against each other.
The tussle between Malakpet MLA Sudheer Reddy, Malkajgiri MP Sarve Satyanarayana and Hyderabad Agriculture Market Committee chairman Ram Mohan Goud completely overshadowed the plantation programme.
HMR had organised the event to plant 54,000 saplings across the city as part of Vana Deeksha. Minister for municipal administration M. Mahee-dhar Reddy was supposed to inaugurate the event, but he did not turn up citing ill-health.
Trouble began when Mr Goud tried to plant a sapling after Mr Satya-narayana planted a sapling at the venue. However, he was obstructed by Mr Reddy who argued that it was against “protocol”. Mr Reddy asked Mr Goud to plant the sapling after him. This led to heated arguments between them and both the leaders hurled abuses at each other.
HMR managing director N.V.S. Reddy had a tough time pacifying them. After repeated requests, the leaders agreed to come on to the dais. Interestingly, Mr Satyanarayana focused his entire speech on the growing differences within the Congress by ignoring the Metro rail project.
However, as soon as the event concluded, the supporters of Mr Reddy and Mr Goud started raising slogans against each other. Outraged, Mr Reddy tried to assault his rivals but was stopped by others. Supporters of Mr Goud then threw chappals at Mr Reddy. The police had to then intervene to bring the situation under control.