Hyderabad:

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy was injured when he was hit by a stone hurled by unidentified persons while campaigning in Vijayawada.

The YSR Congress president campaigned in a bus as part of his Memantha Siddham (roughly translated as “We are ready”) bus Yatra on Saturday. The stone hit the chief minister above his left eyebrow, narrowly missing his eye, and reports said he required two stitches.

Party sources said the stone was thrown from a nearby school. “The attack is a conspiracy by the TDP alliance. (TDP president and former chief minister) Chandrababu Naidu’s nervousness is showing,” a YSRCP member said.

A video showed the chief minister standing on the roof of a car, greeting the crowd gathered on the roadside. The video then cuts to him covering his left eye with his hand. One of the people with him wiped his left eyebrow with a cloth and the chief minister greeted the crowd with folded hands and climbed aboard the bus.

He was treated by doctors inside the bus and then continued his campaign.

The Andhra Pradesh Assembly will hold elections on May 13 for the state’s 25 lower house seats. The Andhra Pradesh Communist Party won 151 assembly seats and 22 Lok Sabha constituencies in 2019. This time, the ruling party will face challenges. Challenge from TDP, BJP and Jana Sena alliance.