The Pratyeka Hoda, Vibhajana Hameela Sadhana Samiti and the Left parties have called for a State bandh on April 16 to mount pressure on the Union government to concede the legitimate demands of Andhra Pradesh. However, emergency services will be exempted from the shutdown, to which the YSR Congress Party and the Congress have extended support. Speaking to the media during a protest organised at Lenin Centre here on Thursday, samiti leader Chalasani Srinivas said the bandh was in protest against the Central government’s negligent attitude to the crisis faced by A.P., and wondered what for the BJP staged the day-long fast across the country.
YSRCP leader Kolusu Parthasarathy said it was due to the fear of incurring the public wrath that Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu reverted to the demand for Special Category Status (SCS) after initially saying that money was what mattered and it was in the pipeline in the form of the special assistance measure that was announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. CPI (M) State committee member Ch. Babu Rao said the BJP had been propagating lies that it has done a lot for Andhra Pradesh.