Hyderabad, Sep 6 - Stepping up their campaign, followers of Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy, son of late chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, Sunday disrupted a condolence meeting at the Congress party headquarters here with their demand that he be made the next chief minister.
The meeting had to be abruptly ended due to the ruckus created by Jagan's followers, who were raising slogans against state Congress chief D. Srinivas, seen here as a contender for the chief minister's post.
Security personnel escorted acting Chief Minister K. Rosaiah, union minister S. Jaipal Reddy and other senior leaders to safety as Jagan's supporters tried to mob them at the meeting held at Gandhi Bhavan, the party headquarters.
Holding placards and posters of YSR -- as the late chief minister was popularly known -- and Jagan, the party activists did not allow Srinivas to speak, forcing him to hastily conclude the meeting. No leader could speak on the condolence resolution.
The trouble started soon after a condolence resolution was moved and Srinivas rose to speak. Slogans of 'DS (D. Srinivas) down down' and 'DS go back' disrupted his speech. When all the appeals to restore order fell on deaf ears, the party chief announced that the meeting was over.
Visibly upset over the turn of events, Rosaiah, Srinivas, Jaipal Reddy, former party presidents M. Satyanarayana Rao and Keshava Rao, former chief minister M. Bhaskara Rao and other leaders left the meeting hall.
Minutes later, YSR's long-time friend and Rajya Sabha member K.