Maoist bid to kill former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Janardhan Reddy, 70, and his wife N Rajyalakshmi, a minister in the state in a land mine blast failed on Friday morning.

Former CM and his wife escaped unhurt from the landmine blast that happened in Nellore district but three Congress workers lost their lives. Reddy is a Lok sabha MP representing Visakhapatnam constituency at present.

According to the report, the Maoist had targeted the convoy of Reddy comprising 21 vehicles that was scheduled to cross the place where they triggered the land mine blast at 6:30 am on Friday. The blast occurred near Chitwedu village in Nellore district that damaged the bullet-proof car in which Reddy and his wife were traveling.

Police officials have made it confirm that Maoists had used a remote device to trigger the land mine blast that killed three people on the spot. Reddy and his wife were on the way to Tirupati for taking part in the convocation ceremony of Sri Venkateshwara University.

When Redyy was the CM of Andhra Pradesh in 1990s, he had ordered to impose ban on Naxalites for the first time in May 1992. Since then, Naxalites have targeted him on several occasions as he had earlier escaped a similar attack in 2003.

Read