The police arrested YSR Congress Party legislators for staging a dharna in front of Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy’s office in the Secretariat on Friday and moved them to Saifabad police station.
Earlier, their talks with the Chief Minister on the issue of stalling the division of the state failed.
While the Chief Minister said that a draft Telangana bill could be defeated whenever it comes up before the Assembly, the YSRC leaders demanded that the government convene a special session of the Assembly and pass a resolution in favour of keeping the state united even before the draft bill is sent to the House for its opinion.
However, Kiran differed with them saying there was no need to convene the session and the Telangana Bill could be defeated whenever it comes before the Assembly.
Following this, the MLAs came out of the CM’s chambers and sat in protest against his response. They shouted slogans in favour of united Andhra Pradesh, holding placards that called for convening of Assembly.
Though the original programme of YSRCP MLAs was to lay siege to the CM’s Camp office at Begumpet. But when CM Kiran went to the Secretariat, they changed their plans and took an appointment to meet him.
The police at the secretariat were well prepared to meet any eventuality. They had arranged buses to transport the MLAs, if they sit in protest.
The police were also prepared with rope barricades. Shobhanagi Reddy, Srikanth Reddy, Amarnatha Reddy, Gottipati Ravi Kumar, Katasani Rambhupal Reddy, Dwarampudi Chandrasekhar Reddy, Sucharitha, Bhumana Karunakar Reddy, Dharmana Krishna Das and Golla Baburao were among the MLAs arrested by the police.
