Andhra Pradesh NGOs’ Association members stripped to their waist and went down on their knees, begging Minister Kolusu Parthasarathy to resign and register his protest against the proposal to divide the State.
The NGOs Association leaders and members resorted to this form of protest when the police refused to allow them to picket the office-cum-residence of Mr. Parthasarathy on Mahatma Gandhi Road behind Swagruha. Tight security was made to protect the Minister’s residence. The protesting NGO activists said, “Sir, please resign and prevent the State division, we beg you.”
The woman members of the association brought tri-coloured bangles (colours of the Congress flag) to offer to the Minister in the traditional way. The women NGOs came in a procession carrying green, white and saffron coloured glass bangles in a plate with betel leaves, nut-powder, turmeric and vermilion powder. The agitators occupied the road in front of the Municipal Commissioner’s Bungalow and raised slogans demanding that all the Central Ministers from Seemandhra - K. Chiranjeevi, Kavuri Sambasiva Rao, Panabaka Lakshmi, J.D. Seelam, and M.M. Pallam Raju - quit immediately. The placards also had hostile messages. One placard parodied the dialogues of Mr. Chiranjeevi’s film, “Tagore” and demanded that the politician-turned-cinema star quit his Minister’s post in support of the Samaikyandhra movement.
Traffic going from Sub-Collector’s office to Indira Gandhi Municipal Stadium had to be diverted during the agitation which lasted for more than 90 minutes.
