Normal life remained paralysed in Seemandhra region on second consecutive day as the strike called by anti-Telangana organisations and political parties was total and peaceful. With State-owned buses remaining confined to the depots, the transport system had come to a grinding halt and thousands of passengers were stranded across the 13 districts of coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema.
Security was tightened and additional police and Central security forces were deployed to prevent any untoward incidents. Opponents of Telangana State took out protest rallies and held demonstrations in all the major cities and towns in the two regions. Processions were taken out in Vijaywada, Visakhapatanam, Tirupati, Anantapur, Guntur, Kadapa and Kurnool.
Even as the political squabbling over the Telangana Bill was continuing in the national capital, the strike called by Samaikya Rashtra Parirakshana Vedika was supported by the YSR Congress Party and Telugu Desam Party demanding that the State should not be divided. While the Central Government and Congress leadership maintained that Telangana Bill was introduced in lok Sabha on Thursday, the opponents including the Seemandhra MPs of Congress party claimed that the Bill was not introduced.
All eyes were focused on the main Opposition BJP as it also stressed that technically the Bill was yet to be introduced in Parliament. But State BJP president G Kishan Reddy said that there was no need for any fear or anxiety among the supporter of Telangana. “Top leaders of our party have reassured me that there was no change in the position of the party on Telangana. They only want the Central Government to solve the problems of Seemandhra region”.
lashing out at the State MPs who created a ruckus in Parliament on Thursday, Kishan Reddy demanded that they should be disqualified from contesting the elections in future. “They have spoiled the good name of Andhra Pradesh,” he said. Meanwhile doctors were shifting Telugu Desam Party MP from Andhra K Narayana to Mumbai. He had suffered heart attack during the trouble in the lok Sabha when the Congress MP from Andhra l Rajagopal used a pepper spray on other members as a mark of protest against the introduction of Telangana Bill.
Talking to reporters on Friday l Rajagopal admitted that what he did was wrong but he did it under unavoidable circumstances. “I did in self defence,” he said. He demanded that the reasons and the circumstances in which he did it should be investigated. “100 MPs attacked me at the behest of Congress high command,” he alleged. “To save myself I had to use the spray but it should not have happened. I regret it,” he said.
l Rajagopal was among the 16 members suspended by lok Sabha speaker after yesterday’s pandemonium in the House. Central Minister from Seemandhra Kavuri Sambasiva Rao said that if the UPA Government accepts the three amendments to the Telangana Bill, the Seeandhra MPs will support it. The amendments include making Hyderabad Union Territory for at least 10 years, merging two Rayalaseema districts with Telangana to make it Rayala Telangana State and also merging Bhadrachalam division with Andhra. “Dividing Andhra Pradesh without any scientific basis is not good for the State as well as the entire country,” he said after a meeting of Seemandhra MPs.