Last week, YSR Congress party missed the intense debate in the Lok Sabha over the injustice meted out to Andhra Pradesh in the implementation of the promises made in the bifurcation act because all its MPs had already resigned.
The party’s call for a bandh across Andhra Pradesh has largely compensated for the same, with the bandh evoking huge response in many parts.
Though the state government sought to dilute the spirit of the bandh, the YSRC leaders and cadre successfully organised the band, courted arrests at several places and highlighted the injustice caused to the state.
The Chandrababu Naidu government, too, took the bandh seriously and tried to suppress it using the police force. They imposed Section 144 at several places and kept the leaders under house arrest.
Several leaders were arrested for trying to forcibly close down shops and establishments in Vijayawada, Guntur, Ongole.
In East and West Godavari districts transportation came to a halt. Bandh has total impact in Kadapa and Pulivendula. However, the bandh has only partial affect in Visakhapatnam and Vizianagaram districts in north coastal AP.
YSRC used this suppression by the police to target Naidu. The party leaders have alleged that the state government instead of encouraging the activists fighting for special category status for the state have been harassed by the state machinery.
However, the party sought to target only the TDP and particularly, Naidu, but hardly made any attack on the Centre and the BJP, giving an opportunity to the TDP to launch a counter-attack.
“When the Centre has done injustice to the state, why is YSRC creating troubles to the people of the state by organising bandh? Already the state is in financial crisis and such bandhs would cause immense stress on the state’s economy,” TDP president and chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu said.
