TDP Meet: Three persons lost their lives and several others were hurt in a stampede that occurred during a public meeting of Telugu Desam Party  president N Chandrababu Naidu on Sunday evening in Guntur. According to the Guntur police, one of the victims was a lady.

Naidu and the regional TDP leaders were blamed by health minister Vidadala Rajini. “Naidu and TDP leaders organise public gatherings in congested streets and tiny alleyways to demonstrate that enormous crowds are turning out for their events. Chandrababu Naidu is to blame for the deaths because it is causing stampedes, she claimed.

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?”

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This is not the sole Incident during a TDP Meet

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.

Eight people, including two women, died from injuries in the prior event. During the stampede, which is thought to have happened as a result of throngs of people rushing to meet Naidu as he arrived, all of the dead fell into a drainage ditch.

As part of his “Idemi Kharma Mana Rashtraniki” (Why is our state experiencing this destiny) agenda in the lead-up to the Assembly elections next year, Naidu is holding the TDP Meets and roadshows.

At his public gatherings, Naidu claimed that the state government failed to provide enough security and safety measures, which led to improper crowd control.

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 programs.

Further criticising Pawan Kalyan, head of the Jana Sena Party (JSP), was Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Speaking at various events over the weekend in Anakapalli and Narsipatnam, the chief minister accused Naidu of betraying all groups of people and claimed that the TDP leader’s obsession with publicity was claiming human lives.

This was an apparent allusion to the stampede that claimed eight lives at the latter’s roadshow in the Nellore district on December 28.