With the AP Reorganisation Bill likely to come up for discussion in Parliament in a couple of days, supporters of the united State shifted their focus to New Delhi where they plan to stage a massive demonstration to protest the division of the State.
Scores of protagonists of Samaikyandhra are moving to the national capital to participate in the ‘Save AP’ demonstration planned on February 17 and 18. The YSR Congress announced its plan to stage a demonstration on February 17 while the APNGOs and other sections made arrangements to stage their protest at Ramlila Maidan the next day.
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In all, eight special trains – six engaged by the AP Non-Gazetted Officers’ Association and two by the YSR Congress – left from different destinations across the 13 districts of coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema on Saturday. While the YSR Congress activists boarded the trains that left Renigunta and Rajahmundry, those carrying APNGOs, students and other sections of Seemandhra left from Vijayawada, Guntur, Nellore, Anantapur, Kakinada and Renigunta.
Several Congress leaders opposed to the bifurcation of the State are expected to participate in the demonstrations which, according to APNGOs president P. Ashok Babu, were billed as the final battle for keeping the State united. Supporters of separate Telangana are, however, suspecting that the Seemandhra people are trying to derail the process by fomenting some trouble in the national capital, ahead of the debate in the Lok Sabha.
“Why did the Centre give permission to special trains at this critical juncture?” TDP Telangana forum convenor E. Dayakar Rao said, expressing doubts over the manner in which scores of Seemandhra supporters were moving to the Capital.
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