Protests to rename Jinnah Tower; Police detain Andhra BJP activists

Amaravati: While attempting to stage a protest march towards the Jinnah Tower of Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, BJP national secretary Sunil Deodhar and several BJP members got detained by police on Tuesday. The detained wanted to rename the tower after former President APJ Abdul Kalam, PTI reported.

The group were planning to take the march after the meeting of BJP's youth wing BJYM here. Also, the BJP Andhra's co-in-charge, Deodhar, was at the meeting too, which turned out them an apt time for the motion. But police intervention thwarted the attempt, PTI reports.

The BJP, along with other Hindu right-wing organisations, has been demanding the renaming of the Jinnah Tower for the past few months, but YS Jagan Mohan Reddy's government in the state gave no ears to the clamour.

Meanwhile, BJP Rajya Sabha member G V L Narasimha Rao condemned the police for detaining his party workers. In a Tweet, he asked whether they were in Andhra Pradesh or Pakistan.

Andhra Pradesh BJP President Somu Veerraju claimed that it was not just their party but the people also demanded renaming the Guntur tower. He claimed that there was extensive support for removing Jinnah's name from the building. He added that the state government could not adopt an oppressive stance over their demand.