Warrant against AP CM from Maha police for 2010 Babli project stir

VIJAYAWADA: An arrest warrant issued against Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu by a Maharashtra court, in connection with a 2010 agitation against the Babli project built on the Godavari river, could provide the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) a new narrative ahead of assembly elections in Telangana.

The warrant, issued by a court in Dharmabad, in Maharashtra’s Nanded, has directed the police to produce Naidu and 15 others before the court by September 21.

Issued by judicial magistrate (first class) NR Gajbhiye, the warrant follows a petition that was filed by a Nanded resident, saying no action was taken on the arrest warrant issued by the Dharmabad court on July 5. Gajbhiye’s order requires Naidu, water resources minister Devineni Umamaheswara Rao, social welfare minister N Anand Babu and former legislator G Kamalakar among others to appear before court by September 21.

Naidu received the warrant on Thursday night while participating at an event in Tirupati. Speaking at a programme in Andhra Pradesh’s Kurnool district on Friday, Naidu said, “I did not do anything wrong. I only fought for justice for the backward north Telangana region, starved of water.”

The warrant has triggered a barrage of protests led by TDP across the state. The party’s activists in the Uttarandhra region resorted to blocking of highways and holding demonstrations denouncing the alleged attempts by the NDA government to browbeat their leader. A similar demonstration is scheduled to take place on Saturday in Nellore.

BJP state president Kanna Lakshminarayana rebutted the allegations. “The court has issued summons more than 22 times, but CM Naidu and his followers gave a scant regard”, Kanna told a press conference.another politburo member of the TDP, Ravula Chandrasekhar Reddy, from Telangana observed “CM K Chandrasekhar Rao is maintaining stoic silence when the TDP is engaged in a bitter fight for protecting the irrigation interests of the state”.