Several BJP leaders, including national secretary Sunil Deodhar, and workers were arrested Tuesday evening. They attempted to march to the Jinnah Tower Centre in Guntur, asking that it be renamed after former President A P J Abdul Kalam.
Following a party’s youth wing meeting, BJYM, BJP officials, and workers attempted to march to Jinnah Tower but were stopped by police and detained.
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The BJP and other Hindu organizations have called for the historic Jinnah Tower to be renamed for months, but the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government has ignored them.
On Tuesday, Mr. Deodhar, the state co-in-charge of the party, was in the city and attempted to lead the demonstration.
The BJP demanded that A P J Abdul Kalam Tower be renamed after Jinnah Tower.
G V L Narasimha Rao, a BJP Rajya Sabha member, criticized the police’s harsh treatment of his party’s leaders and their imprisonment.
“Are we in AP or Pakistan?” he queried in a tweet.
Some Veerraju, the state BJP president, stated that not just his party but also the people asked that the tower be renamed.
He claimed that the desire to rename the tower after Abdul Kalam and remove Jinnah’s name had broad support. Mr. Veerraju continued, “The state government cannot take a repressive posture on our demand.
