Lok Sabha passes Telangana bill amid din

Amid pandemonium, the Lok Sabha Tuesday finally passed a bill aimed at carving out a Telangana state out of Andhra Pradesh.

The Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill was passed by voice vote in the face of noisy protests by Andhra Pradesh MPs opposed to Telangana as well as a section of the opposition parties.

The critics, including at least one Congress cabinet minister and CPI-M members, massed near Speaker Meira Kumar screaming slogans against Andhra Pradesh's bifurcation but they were ignored.

A fuming Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, leader of the YSR Congress, called it "a black day" in the history of India and announced a general strike in Andhra Pradesh Wednesday.

"The bill was passed in parliament today against the will of the (Andhra) assembly, against the will of the people of Andhra Prdesh," he told the media.

"Today we saw how undemocratically the bill has been passed... The way the proceedings took place, the way the ayes and noes were called by the speaker very clearly showed how democracy can be killed in broad daylight.

"It is a black day in the history of the country. We are declaring a bandh in Andhra Pradesh tomorrow."