The continuing political tussle for one-upmanship between the ruling Congress party and Opposition Telugu Desam over the rescue of stranded Telugu pilgrims in Uttarakhand took a nasty turn with the Members of Parliament of the two parties coming close to fisticuffs in Dehradun.
Further heightening the tempers between the two parties over who was doing more for the pilgrims, Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu again landed in Dehradun and declared that he will stay put there till the last pilgrim from Andhra Pradesh was safely sent back home.
In an ugly turn to the ongoing political tussle, TDP’s K Narayana and a State Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy had a spat in
full public view. In another instance Congress MP V Haumantha Rao and TDP MP Ramesh Rathod clashed and officials had to intervene.
The two leaders pushed and shoved each other as they tried to take credit for rescue of the pilgrims.
Television channels showed Rathod and Hanumantha Rao shouting and pushing each other outside Dehradun airport. Both of them wanted to fly back the rescued pilgrims to Andhra Pradesh first.
Congress leaders are already upset with Naidu for taking a lead in personally reaching out to the pilgrims, visiting Dehradun and also organizing a special flight to take the pilgrims to Hyderabad .
Naidu who reached Dehradun for the second time said that he had to enter the fray as the State Government had failed in coming to the rescue of the pilgrims from Andhra Pradesh. “I will remain here till all the pilgrims return home”, he declared in Dehradun.
Interestingly TDP MP from Adilabad Rathod became the first political leader to manage to reach the stranded pilgrims in Badrinath and helped in establishing contact between them and their families back home. He reported that more than 400 Andhra Pradesh pilgrims were stuck in Badrinath.
Meanwhile Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy met some of the pilgrims at AP Bhavan in New Delhi and assured them all the assistance. One of the survivors K Srinivas Rao told the Chief Minister that his wife Hemlatha had gone missing in the floods in Rambada and pleaded with him for help in tracing her.
According to an official Press release arrangements were being made to send the pilgrims back by air.