Babu to fast for Babli

The Telugu Desam president, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, along with party MLAs and MPs who are in custody of the Maharashtra police at the ITI Centre, will observe a day’s hunger strike on Monday in solidarity with the party’s bandh.

The TD had called for a bandh following the arrest of the party chief and other party MPs, MLAs and MLCs by the Maharashtra police to prevent them from going to Babli to protest against the controversial Babli project. The TD has termed the arrest as illegal.

Mr Naidu is also planning to write an open letter to all the people and political parties of Andhra Pradesh seeking their support in the fight against Babli and other illegal projects of the Maharashtra government.

The Maharashtra government is in a dilemma about what to do with the TD leaders who are in custody as Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu and the other legislators have also decided not to apply for bail on Monday.

After spending two days in judicial custody, Mr Naidu and his team would have been set free if they applied for bail before the local magistrate on Monday. If they do not, they will be sent to remand and shifted to jails.

The Maharashtra government now can either set the TD legislators free by dropping all cases or send them to jail, which will only make matters worse and trigger protests in Andhra Pradesh and further worsen the inter-state dispute. The TD strategy is to take the issue to a logical conclusion. They plan to seek permission to visit the Babli project again and also want the Maharashtra government to withdraw the cases on its own with an “apology.”

“We have done no wrong. We were taken into custody by the Maharashtra Police in our territory. They deceived us with a promise to take us to the Babli irrigation project site. The ball is in their court. We will not seek bail come what may,” said Mr Naidu.