By IANS
Chennai : Politics in New Delhi had its fallout here Friday as Congress party workers clashed with AIADMK cadre and demanded the arrest of the party chief J. Jayalalitha for her “derogatory” remarks against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the Indo-US nuclear deal.
Police took 148 Congress activists, including three MLAs, into preventive custody for laying siege at Jayalalitha’s Poes Garden house and shouting slogans against her.
The Congress agitators reportedly attacked an AIADMK activist with a cricket bat and injured him.
Jayalalitha had in a statement earlier in the week accused the prime minister of “toeing the US line” on the Indo-US nuclear deal and said he should be “expelled” to the USA.
The infuriated Congress leaders have asked the party’s ally, the ruling DMK, to arrest Jayalalitha.
Trouble began Friday morning when Congress activists, led by Cheyyar MLA Vishnu Prasad, son of state Congress chief M. Krishnaswamy, and Arul Anbarasu took a rally to the AIADMK leader’s house.
Even as police rushed to the site and took into custody the agitating Congress workers, hundreds of AIADMK workers gathered before the house to protect it.
Soon AIADMK MLAs like D. Jayakumar and Sekar Babu arrived with more party activists, and a free-for-all ensued in which Congress MLA Vijaykumar was also involved.
Vishnu Prasad told the media here that they would intensify their agitation against the AIADMK supremo in the 35 constituencies where the Congress was in strength unless the state government arrested Jayalalitha.