In their biggest show of strength after statehood was formally proposed for Telangana late last year, a huge number of supporters of unified Andhra Pradesh took to the streets across the south coastal districts in the form of a ‘Run for Samaikyandhra’ on Sunday and made it clear that they were prepared to take charge of the fight against bifurcation.
‘Jai Samaikyandhra’ slogans reverberated in all important towns from Eluru to Nellore while the run at Vijayawada drew a number of people.
Leaders of Congress, TDP and YSR Congress came together for the cause of a unified State as people turned the heat on them against the backdrop of the urgency with which Central government carried forward the process of bifurcation.
Centre blamed for crisisAt the PWD grounds in Vijayawada where the run started, the participants shouted slogans against the Central government which they blamed for the crisis, and warned that they would not tolerate the political drama anymore.
A banner which proclaimed seven Union Ministers as ‘Seemandhra Drohulu’ (traitors of Seemandhra) gave vent to their anger to which the politicians said, “People should show to those in Delhi their fighting spirit and what ‘Telugu pride’ means.”
The coming together of Vijayawada MP Lagadapati Rajagopal and Minister K. Parthasarathy and TDP leaders Kesineni Srinivas and Nagul Meera and P. Gowtam Reddy of YSR Congress was a topic of discussion in Vijayawada and so was the show of unity that MP Rayapati Sambasiva Rao and TDP Guntur district president Pratthipati Pulla Rao put up in Guntur.
There was a similar gesture by MP Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy and leaders of other parties in Ongole.
APNGOs’ association president P. Ashok Babu has in the inaugural session of the run at Vijayawada, said that the Union Ministers who fail to espouse the cause of a unified State even now should remember that the days of their political rule are numbered.
