Anantapur, Apr 27 (UNI) Senior Congress leader and Aluru Assembly constituency in-charge, Chippagiri Lakshminarayan, was brutally murdered by unidentified miscreants while he was going to his native village Chippagiri of the district in AP in a car on Sunday.

Police said that the deceased Congress leader Lakshminarayan, along with his son Vinod Kumar, was going in a car to their native village Chippagiri.

The miscreants rammed his car with a tipper lorry. When the car was badly damaged and came to a halt, about nine miscreants attacked the Congress leader and stabbed him to death. He was immediately taken to the GGH in Guntakal where he was declared dead. However, his son escaped with injuries.

The deceased Congress leader Lakshminarayana was also president of MRPS for Rayalaseema region.

Police said that the miscreants waylaid at Chippagiri bridge, on the outskirts of Chippagiri town and attacked him. When the car entered the place, they rammed the car with a tipper lorry. They hacked him with hunting sickles and fled the scene leaving the tipper lorry there. A large number of relatives and followers rushed the place.

Police have registered a case and launched a massive hunt for the killers.

Police suspect that an old enmity could be the reason for the brutal murder.

The people of the surrounding villages feared that the faction murders are surfacing again in the region. The people of the Chippagiri village told media that they did not see a faction murder during the last one decade.

Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) Vice-president Kolanukonda Shivaji expressed shock over the brutal murder of the Congress leader Lakshminarayana. He conveyed sympathies to the bereaved family.

In a statement here on Sunday, Kolanukonda Shivaji recalled that the deceased Congress leader had appealed to police to provide him with a gunman as he was facing life threats, but police ignored his request.

The APCC Vice-president regretted that this incident exposed how the law and order situation deteriorated in the State and he suspected the hand of TDP leaders in the murder. He assured of extending all support to the bereaved family.

Kolanukonda Shivaji demanded a high-level inquiry of the brutal murder of a senior Congress leader.

UNI DP SS