VIJAYAWADA : Even as investigation continues into the attack on Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s during his ‘Memantha Siddham’ campaign in Vijayawada on Saturday, several questions remain unanswered as to why the Chief Minister spent more than five hours on the route in Vijayawada city which made him a sitting duck for the attack.
Senior police officials, on condition of anonymity, told TNIE that Vijayawada city police had initially expressed their reservation and concern over Jagan’s safety when the CM’s programme coordination team and other officials concerned came up with the route map, which showed that the cavalcade would have to pass through congested localities in Vijayawada.
It is also learnt that Vijayawada police examined the proposed routes and suggested alternative routes in order to avoid untoward incidents during the Chief Minister’s tour in the city. However, the plan was not changed and the programme coordination team stuck to the original route proposed.
After completing his tour in Guntur district on Saturday afternoon, Jagan entered Vijayawada at Kanaka Durgamma Varadhi as Devineni Avinash, Velampalli Srinivasa Rao, Shaik Asif, Jogi Ramesh and others welcomed him.
Proceeding further, the cavalcade of Jagan crossed the junction and took the Water tank road which is 60 feet wide having electrical wires and other cables dangling.
“At one point of time, Jagan found it very difficult to stand on the bus as tree branches and cables touched him several times,” said a local resident of Labbipet.
Jagan’s bus yatra from Labbipet to Ramavarappadu junction covered major junctions like Sikhamani centre, Nice Bar junction, Metro Junction, Chuttugunta junction, BRTS road point, Food Junction, sharp curve at Gowtham Reddy’s house, narrow bridge at Ajith Singh Nagar and another narrow Daba Kottu centre road and then to Pipula Road and reached Ramavarappadu via inner ring road.
