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Syed Amin Jafri in Hyderabad
In continuing local bodies' poll-related violence, a Congress mandal president was hacked to death by his Telugu Desam rival in Anantapur district in Andhra Pradesh on Sunday evening.
As a sequel to the murder, violence broke out in Yadiki mandal town, where rival Congress and Telugu Desam groups clashed and hurled crude bombs. Police reinforcements were rushed to Yadiki to defuse tension.
According to the police, Yadiki mandal president, Bala Satish Kumar, 30, was waylaid and killed by the rival group led by Telugu Desam former mandal parishad president Balaji Chandrasekhar Chowdary.
The incident occurred when Satish Kumar was returning to Yadiki in a Tata Sumo with 10 of his supporters after meeting Joint Collector C Partharasarathi in Anantapur town in connection with change of polling stations in Yadiki for the ensuing panchayat elections.
The rival group of 10 persons parked a Tata Sumo across the road at Rotarypuram village to block Kumar's passage.
The assailants threw crude bombs at Satish Kumar's vehicle. His followers took to heel after the vehicle stopped abruptly.
Two of them suffered bomb injuries.
Satish Kumar, who was occupying the front seat, could not escape. He was pulled out of the Sumo and hacked to death by sickle-wielding goons.
Congress Legislature Party deputy leader J C Diwakar Reddy alleged that the murder was perpetrated by Telugu Desam activists to avenge their party's defeat in the recent mandal elections.
The Congress had bagged nine out of 12 mandal parishad territorial constituencies in Yadiki mandal.
Satish Kumar joined the poll fray after his elder brother died in a road accident in Hyderabad.
In another incident on July 29, Congress mandal parishad vice-president K Poli Naidu, 46, was hacked to death by his Telugu Desam rivals at Etcherla in Srikakulam district.
He was waylaid when he was returning on a motorcycle to Faridpeta village after filing a compromise petition at the local police station in connection with the poll-eve clashes in the village. His nephew and pillion-rider suffered serious injuries.
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