The police opened fire twice in the air to quell a riotous mob when prominent film actress Roja went to Nagari on Wednesday to file her nomination as the Telugu Desam Party candidate for the assembly polls.
Elsewhere in the state, over a hundred persons, including a few policemen, were injured when clashes broke out between the Congress and TDP supporters at Tadipatri.
Over 2,000 supporters of a rebel TDP leader V Doraswamy Raju blocked the road leading to the Returning Officer's office since morning.
Roja, who came to the town around 11 am, waited at a party leader's place till 2 pm and then went out in a convoy to file her nomination papers.
Enraged TDP activists chased her convoy and attacked her supporters. In the stone-pelting, two vehicles in the convoy were damaged and two of Roja's supporters were injured.
As she came out, fresh trouble broke out and Doraswamy Raju's supporters pelted stones on her and attacked her supporters. The police opened fire in the air once again to disperse the riotous mob. She was escorted out of the town.
Rebel TDP activists, who were angered by the denial of nomination to Doraswamy Raju, a former MLA, had threatened to prevent Roja from filing her nomination. They also burnt an effigy of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
Doraswamy Raju entered the fray as a TDP rebel.
In another major incident, clashes broke out between Congress workers and Telugu Desam activists at Tadpatri in Anantapur district when Congress candidate and member of dissolved Assembly J C Diwakar Reddy took out a procession for filing his nomination.
The town witnessed pitched battles between rival groups for three hours, forcing the police to open fire in the air twice.
Earlier in the day, TDP candidate K Surya Pratap Reddy filed his nomination. Around noon, Congress nominee Diwakar Reddy set out in a procession to the Returning Officer's office. As the convoy passed by the house of Surya Pratap Reddy, there was stone pelting from the rooftops. The Congress activists retaliated.
Pitched battles ensued between hundreds of supporters of the rival groups. Stone pelting soon gave way to hurling of soda bottles and crude (countrymade) bombs between the warring groups.
The Congress candidate's car was set on fire. In the melee, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, a sub-inspector and several policemen were injured in stone-pelting, forcing them to open fire in the air.
Meanwhile, Diwakar Reddy sneaked into the Returning Officer's office and filed his nomination.