Hyderabad: The rumblings within Andhra Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) unit over the party leadership's 'abject surrender' to ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in allotment of seats took an ugly turn today (Mar 25, 2004), with scores of party activists storming the city office and going on a rampage.

Raising slogans against the State leadership for "giving up" several constituencies in the seat-sharing talks with TDP, the BJP workers attacked the party office, broke windowpanes and damaged the furniture.

State party president N Indrasena Reddy, who was present in the party office, tried in vain to pacify the enraged workers, who gheraoed him and shouted slogans against the State leadership.

The demonstrators alleged that the party was "prostrating before TDP and hurting the sentiments of party workers".

As per the electoral alliance with TDP, the BJP has been allotted nine Lok Sabha seats out of a total of 42 in the State, and 27 Assembly constituencies in the 294-member House.

The BJP had won seven LS seats in 1999 polls, out of eight allotted to it, and 12 out of 24 assembly seats.

The saffron party's decision to give away Mahaboobnagar Lok Sabha seat and Nalgonda, Malakpet, Shadnagar, Alampur and Nizamabad Assembly seats, which it had contested in the previous elections, triggered angry reaction from party workers.

When contacted, the state BJP general secretary G Kishan Reddy sought to downplay the incident, saying "no genuine party worker was involved in today's protest".

"Some elements inimical to our party's growth have been making provocative statements to mislead the party youth," Reddy said.