Supporters of Telangana Forest Minister Konda Surekha and party MLA Revuri Prakash Reddy clashed with each other over the installation of a flex on October 13 at Dharmaram village in Geesugonda mandal of Warangal district.
The minister rushed to the police station in Warangal district and sat in the chair of the Station House Officer to demand the release of her followers who were arrested by the police after the clash.
The incident occurred when Prakash Reddy’s group took strong exception to the minister’s followers putting up a flex on the occasion of Dussehra without a picture of the MLA. They tore the flexi and this led to Konda Surekha’s followers attacking the MLA’s supporters.
Some supporters of the MLA were injured in the attack. On their complaint, police registered a case and arrested some followers of the minister. On learning about this, the minister rushed to Geesugonda Police Station.
She sat in the SHO’s chair and pulled up the officials for arresting her followers. She refused to leave the police station till the release of her followers. The video of the incident went viral on social media.
The incident has led to speculations about infighting within the ruling Congress party in the district. Konda Surekha, who represents the Warangal East constituency, has differences with Prakash Reddy, a former leader of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) who joined the Congress party just before last year’s Assembly elections. Prakash Reddy was elected to the Assembly from the Parkal constituency in the same district.
Konda Surekha raked up a huge controversy with her comments blaming Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president KT Rama Rao for the separation of actors Naga Chaitanya and actor Samantha Ruth Prabhu. Actor Akkineni Nagarjuna filed a defamation suit against her and said that the minister was deliberately spreading the allegations with the sole intention of damaging the complainant's personal, professional and his family reputation. Samantha and Naga Chaitanya also had issued statements rubbishing the deplorable comments made by the Minister.
KTR also issued a legal notice to Surekha, seeking to retract her remarks within 24 hours failing which he would file civil and criminal proceedings. The minister was forced to issue an apology later.