Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president N. Raghveera Reddy was taken into custody and bundled into to a mini bus while he was staging a rasta roko near busy Benz Circle here on Friday.
Mahila Congress president Sunkara Padmasri, PCC general secretary N. Narasimha Rao and NSUI State president Rajiv Ratna, who were staging protest demanding Special Category Status for the State, were also taken into custody at Skew Bridge and released later.
Addressing a press conference at Andhra Ratna Bhavan later, Mr. Raghuveera Reddy said that party workers were ready to make any sacrifice for achieving SCS and bifurcation promises made to the State.
‘A Holi gift to PM’
He said a ‘jail bharo’ campaign would also be organised to exert pressure on the Central government.
There was a sense of urgency as nothing could be achieved once the Budget session got over.
Rasta rokos were staged at 22 locations across the State, he said. The PCC chief said his arrest along with Congress workers was ‘a Holi gift’ to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said party cadres could not be cowed down by such measures.
He said this was the right time for all political parties to come together to fight for SCS. When 14 political parties were ready to agitate for SCS , the TDP and YSR Congress Party should also shift their camp to Delhi.
He said that YSR Congress Party president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy should put his padyatra on hold for a while and support the agitation that was going on in New Delhi. Similarly, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu should go to Delhi and join the all-party protest.
