Team News Riveting
Hyderabad, January 1
In second incident within a span of four days at the political event of Telugu Desam president and former Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu in Andhra, three women died in a stampede in Guntur district today.
The incident took place at the rally organised by the Telugu Desam that was attended by former Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu. A senior police officer said the public meeting was over and Naidu had left the venue for his residence when the tragic incident took place.
After the public meeting, there was a programme by local Telugu Desam Party leaders to distribute sarees as gifts from Chandrababu Naidu to the women for Sankranti, the harvest festival coming up in two weeks. Some 4,000 women had gathered to get the Chandrababu Sankranti Kanuka. On the other side, dinner packets were being distributed.
Sources said the barricades put for crowd control collapsed resulting in the mad rush and stampede, the officer said.
This is the second incident in a span of four days that people lost their lives at a public event of Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party, which has been holding a series of political meetings across the state in the run up to the 2024 assembly elections in the state.
On Wednesday, eight people including a woman died in a near-stampede in Nellore district during a roadshow by the former Chief Minister. Several people fell in an open canal as locals in Kandukur lined up for a glimpse of Naidu.