With Congress and Telugu Desam backing the APNGOs call for bandh on January 3, YSR Congress Party too gave a parallel call for a shutdown the same day and announced a series of protest programmes against the division of the State.
The bandh call of all the organisations coincides with the resumption of the Assembly session to take up a debate on AP Reorganisation Bill from January 3.
After a meeting of the Political Affairs Committee (PAC) of the YSRC, which met under the leadership of its president Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy, senior party leader M.V. Mysura Reddy, said the party was calling the bandh along with other groups and organisations that were in favour of an integrated State. There was no question of joining hands with the Congress which was dividing the State or the Telugu Desam, which was supporting the division, he added.
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Alleging that sanctity of the Assembly was in question with Delhi dictating the proceedings, he said the party has decided to organise protest programmes to highlight the undemocratic procedure that the Assembly was adopting.
Dr. Reddy said that motorcycle rally would be conducted on January 4, followed by human chains on January 6 and relay hunger strikes between January 7 and 10.
Observing that nowhere in the country was a State reorganised or divided without an Assembly resolution, he said the bifurcation issue was being treated as if it was an internal party affair by the Congress when it came to Andhra Pradesh. “Depending on the Assembly proceedings, we will take our decisions to take forward the fight for a united state”, he added.
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On divesting the portfolio of Legislative Affairs from Civil Supplies Minister D. Sridhar Babu, he said it was purely the prerogative of Chief Minister.