Stampede at another Chandrababu Naidu meeting: Three dead in Guntur

Health Minister Vidadala Rajini laid the blame on Naidu and local TDP leaders. “To show that large numbers of people are attending their meetings, Naidu and TDP leaders are holding public meetings in narrow lanes and streets where the traffic is getting blocked. It is leading to stampedes and Chandrababu Naidu is responsible for the fatalities,’’ she said.

After the stampede at the rally site in Guntur on Sunday. (ANI)

Rajini also claimed that the stampede occurred because local TDP leaders promised to distribute essential commodities like cooking oil and rice, and thus when TDP vehicles arrived, there was a surge in the crowd leading to the stampede.

Reacting to Rajini’s allegation, TDP leader N Nara Lokesh said: “If the YSRCP government was implementing so many welfare schemes that it claims changed the lives of the poor, why was there a stampede to grab food packets?”

Notably, this is the second such incident in quick succession during Naidu’s public meetings. Eight people died in a stampede at a public meeting of the TDP chief in Nellore district on December 28.

In the earlier incident, eight persons succumbed to injuries, including two women. All of the deceased fell into a drainage ditch during the stampede, which purportedly occurred owing to thousands of people rushing to greet Naidu as he arrived. The public meetings and roadshows are being held by Naidu as part of his ‘Idemi Kharma Mana Rashtraniki (Why is our state facing this fate)’ programme in the run-up to the Assembly elections next year.

Naidu had alleged that the state government was not ensuring proper security and safety measures at his public meetings, resulting in crowd mismanagement.

Whereas, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy blamed TDP chief Naidu for the stampedes, accusing him of not informing the local police of their plans, and holding meetings in narrow lanes to portray that a huge crowd attended their programmes.

Jagan Mohan Reddy also slammed Jana Sena Party (JSP) president Pawan Kalyan’s proposed yatra in the state.

Speaking at various programmes over the weekend in Anakapalli and Narsipatnam, the chief minister accused Naidu of betraying all sections of people and alleged that the TDP leader’s craze for publicity was costing human lives, in an apparent reference to the stampede that led to the death of eight persons at the latter’s roadshow in Nellore district on December 28.