Kanhaiya Kumar faces protest in Vijayawada

Vijayawada, March 24: JNU student union leader Kanhaiya Kumar faced protests here on Thursday, with activists of the BJP and affiliated groups trying to disrupt the meeting he was addressing.

Tension prevailed at the meeting venue as protesters first stopped his convoy and later tried to disrupt the meeting organised by Left parties.

Shouting slogans against Kanhaiya Kumar, leaders and workers of the BJP, its youth wing Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha and other groups gathered at the venue.

Activists of Left parties raised counter slogans. There were heated arguments and jostling between the two sides.

Police intervened to control the situation and arrested the protesters.

Earlier, the meeting venue was shifted from a college to a hotel as the ABVP and other groups took strong objection to the management granting permission for the meeting in college auditorium.

There was tension in Siddhartha College since morning as ABVP, BJYM and other groups threatened to disrupt the meeting if it was allowed in the college premises.

They alleged that the management granted permission for the meeting despite sedition charges faced by Kanhaiya Kumar.

The student leader was accorded a warm welcome by leaders of Left parties in the evening when he reached Gannavaram airport here from Hyderabad.

Police, however, prevented them from taking out a rally.

This was second time in the day that Kanhaiya Kumar faced protests.

A youth hurled a shoe at him when he was addressing a meeting in Hyderabad. The youth, belonging to a right-wing organisation was arrested.

The leader of JNU students' union was last month arrested on charges of sedition after alleged anti-India slogans were raised during a meeting at the JNU campus. He was later granted bail.

Kanhaiya Kumar arrived in Hyderabad on Wednesday on a two-day visit, his first outside Delhi after his release.

He, however, was denied entry into Hyderabad University to address students and pay tributes to Rohith Vemula, a Dalit research scholar who committed suicide in January.

IANS