Special status: TDP MPs protest at Rajghat

Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MPs reached Delhi's Rajghat on Monday morning to protest in front of Mahatma Gandhi's statue over their demand for granting special category status to Andhra Pradesh.

The MPs paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi and took an oath in front of his statue, and vowed to keep the agitation peaceful.

"We came here particularly to take an oath for the continuation of agitation to implement the AP Reorganisation Act which was passed on February 20, 2014. We want to do a peaceful agitation so we thought the Gandhi Ghat was ideal," MP YS Chowdhury told ANI.

"Central government should respond to us. We are requesting you through Gandhi ji right now. We have come to Rajghat, we have paid our tributes, and we have also taken our oath that we are going to fight till we achieve special status and all the rights," Ram Mohan Naidu said.

The TDP MPs have been adamant on their demands for special category status.

On Sunday, the MPs were detained for protesting outside Prime Minister Narendra Modi's residence in Lok Kalyan Marg.

Earlier on Friday, the TDP legislators staged a protest inside the Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan's chamber and continued protesting even after they were marshalled out.

The Opposition party of Andhra Pradesh, Yuvajana Shramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP), has also been waging the same fight against Centre, and party chief Jagan Mohan Reddy announced on March 31 that his party's MPs would quit and sit on an indefinite hunger strike in New Delhi to press for the special category status to Andhra Pradesh.

On March 16, the ruling TDP reached a deadlock with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over this issue and ultimately quit the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) coalition. Since then, the TDP MPs have regularly staged protests in the Parliament demanding Special Category Status.