Telangana ministers and Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president B Mahesh Kumar Goud were taken into preventive custody on October 8 after attempting to march towards Lok Bhavan in Hyderabad’s Somajiguda, while the rally caused temporary traffic disruption on the busy stretch between the Khairatabad flyover and NTR Gardens.
Police shifted Ministers Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, Ponnam Prabhakar, D Sridhar Babu, Adluri Laxman Kumar and Vakiti Srihari, along with Goud, to Panjagutta police station, according to a report by Deccan Chronicle. The leaders were demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
The march began near the statue of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The leaders, carrying party flags, moved towards Lok Bhavan in Somajiguda, but police stopped the group and took the participants into preventive custody. The report did not specify how long the detention would last or whether any cases had been registered.
A large number of party cadres joined the rally. Their movement and the police intervention led to traffic chaos for a while on the route from the Khairatabad flyover towards NTR Gardens, an important east-west connection through central Hyderabad. The incident placed a political mobilisation directly on a heavily used urban road corridor, affecting traffic movement beyond the immediate protest site.
The police action involved ministers holding office in the Telangana government as well as the ruling party’s state unit chief. Their detention therefore combined a political confrontation with an operational law-and-order response in a densely travelled part of the city. The report did not provide details of traffic diversions, the number of personnel deployed or the precise duration of the disruption.
The march was organised around the demand for the Chief Election Commissioner’s resignation. The supplied report does not set out the allegations or political background behind that demand, and no response from Lok Bhavan or the Election Commission was included.
The episode also highlights how rallies around government and constitutional institutions can quickly affect city movement when they take place along major roads. In this case, the reported traffic impact extended from the Khairatabad flyover to NTR Gardens, while the detained leaders were taken to Panjagutta police station.
The next steps, including the duration of the preventive custody and any further police or party statements, were not specified in the report.
