Students don't have right to enter party office: D Purandeswari

VIJAYAWADA: A day after a scuffle took place between local BJP leaders and a group of students, party's Mahila Morcha in-charge D Purandeswari today said students have the right to protest peacefully, but can't enter party office and burn Prime Minister's effigy.

However, the Opposition parties in Andhra Pradesh condemned the incident and demanded an apology from the BJP.

"Students have the right to protest peacefully, but they have no right to enter party office and it is illegal to burn the effigy of Prime Minister," Purandeswari told reporters here.

The former Union minister's reaction came following a scuffle yesterday between local BJP leaders and a group of students, who, according to partymen stormed into the BJP's office here and tried to burn the effigy of PM Narendra Modi, demanding special status for AP.

While BJP lodged a police complaint that the students trespassed into the party office and tried to burn PM's effigy inside, the students, who were members of the Students' Joint Action Committee (JAC), filed a counter-complaint stating that the BJP leaders attacked them unprovoked, police earlier said.

BJP's Andhra Pradesh general secretary J Shyam Kishore urged the police to verify the background of the students involved in the scuffle.

Meanwhile, the Opposition parties, including the Congress, CPI, CPM and AAP condemned the incident and demanded an apology from the BJP.

The CPM also led a protest march in the city today, while the Congress has decided to hold a protest against the incident tomorrow.