The State-wide bandh called by YSRCP and supported by other Opposition parties demanding Special Category Status to Andhra Pradesh was partial and peaceful on Tuesday. Leaders and activists of the Opposition parties were arrested while they were preventing Andhra Pradesh Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) buses at several places from plying as part of enforcing the bandh.
While most educational institutions told students the previous day itself that classes would not be held, other establishments either remained closed or downed shutters in many places. In some places, activists who escaped arrest went around forcing business and other establishments to shutdown. Movie theatres cancelled morning shows in Guntur. Leaders of the YSRCP, Left parties and the Congress were arrested in Kurnool, Guntur, Srikakulam and Vijayawada.
YSR Congress and Left parties reached the RTC Depot in Srikakulam as early as 4 a.m. This forced the RTC to cancel some services but skeletal services were resumed after the police rounded up them. While the bandh was peaceful in most of the places, there was tension at some places where the police rounded up large number of activists and important leaders.
Several State leaders of the YSR Congress party including MLAs and MLCs were taken into custody. Bhuma Karunakar Reddy, Chevireddi Bhaskar Reddy, MLA, Meka Pratap Appa Rao, Nuzvid MLA, Rakshana Nidhi, Tiruvuru MLA, former Minister K P Saradhi, former MLAs Vangaveeti Radhakrishna and Perni Nani were arrested in their respective constituencies. CPI(M) secretary P Madhu participated in a rally that began from the Lenin Centre and went around the main streets of Governorpet in Vijayawada. CPI State secretary K Ramakrishna who participated in a scooter rally and former Union Minister M M Pallam Raju who took out a rally with Congress workers were also taken into custody.
Over 1,000 arrested
The police arrested over 1,000 persons in Srikakulam. Tension prevailed at the Srikakulam RTC depot when the police tried to arrest former Minister Tammineni Sitaram. The activists argued and resisted, but the police finally had their way and arrested him.
In Guntur, YSR Congress Party leaders including Guntur East MLA Sk. Mustafa and city unit president Lella Appireddy were taken into custody at the NTR Bus Station Complex. CPI(M) State assistant secretary Muppala Nageswara Rao and district secretary Jangala Ajay Kumar were also arrested. In Kurnool, Panyam YSRCP MLA Gauru Charitha Reddy was arrested with others while trying to stop buses from leaving the depot. In Ongole, high drama was witnessed at the bus depot as the activists, who laid siege to the depot here at dawn, offered stiff resistance to police personnel who bundled them into waiting police vans. The bus services, which were disrupted in, among other places, Ongole, Kanigiri and Markapur in the morning were restored later with police providing additional security.
The bandh observed in all the major towns of Krishna district, Chittoor and Nellore was peaceful. The YSRCP and left party leaders took out mass rallies during the bandh. Complete bandh was observed in the Krishna district headquarters of Machilipatnam and in Gudivada, Nuzvid, Pamarru and Vuyyuru, where all the business establishments and educational institutions remained shut down till the evening. However, the APSRTC managed to ply services to various destinations including Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad from these places.
