Visakjapatnam: An Andhra Pradesh lawmaker and a ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader were shot dead by Maoists on Sunday in Visakhapatnam district, police said. Kidari Sarveswara Rao, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) lawmaker from Araku Valley and former lawmaker Shivari Soma were attacked when they were returning from an event in Livitiput, 15 km from Araku Valley.
They were intercepted by a large group of armed Maoists, including women, when they were returning in two vehicles. After engaging in talks with the duo regarding the contentious issue of mining in the area, the Maoists shot at them from point blank range. The Maoists then used people as human shields and escaped with weapons that the personal security officers of the lawmaker were carrying, police sources said.
“A group of Maoists came along with the villagers and blocked the MLA’s car. As the personal security officers of the legislator and the ex-legislator got down, they snatched two rifles from them and shot Sarveswara Rao and Soma dead,” Visakhapatnam Range Deputy Inspector General of Police CH Srikanth told news agency Press trust of India. Police sources suspect the involvement of Maoists Andhra-Odisha Border Committee secretary Ramakrishna in the attack.
Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, who is in the US, has offered his condolences to Rao’s family. All elected representatives in the state have been asked to remain alert. Rao was elected from Araku, a constituency reserved for the Scheduled Tribes, on YSR Congress Party ticket in the 2014 elections, defeating Soma of the TDP. Two years later, Mr Rao joined the TDP.
According to the police, both of them had received threats from Maoists in the past. In July, the tribals had protested against Mr Rao for allegedly obtaining mining lease in the name of his brother-in-law. They had alleged that extraction of black stones was damaging their homes.
