YSR Congress Party MLA Vundavalli Sridevi has alleged that she was stopped from entering a Ganesh pandal in Andhra Pradesh’s Tadikonda by Telugu Desam Party (TDP) workers on Monday because she is a Dalit.
ANI also has a video of the incident:
On Monday, the death anniversary of former Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy, Sridevi was invited to garland his statue and then attend a puja ceremony at a Ganesh pandal in Thullur mandal. However, she alleged that TDP workers stopped her and told her that “if she enters the pandal, it will get polluted”.
Sridevi told HuffPost India that she approached the Thullur SHO and a case has been lodged under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act case against four TDP workers.
The MLA also alleged that this is not the first time when she has been attacked by TDP workers and blamed party chief Chandrababu Naidu for enabling them.
Sridevi said that she will approach the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and state’s human rights commission. She said she will also file a Prevention of Atrocities case against Naidu.
Sridevi, who is a practicing gynaecologist, said that despite her medical degrees from Hyderabad and Ohio, she continues to face discrimination in her own constituency. Tadikonda is a constituency reserved for SC candidates. YSR Congress Party has condemned the incident.