 "Andhra: Protests as well as celebrations continue peacefully")
A day after the Lok Sabha passed the contentious Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill, celebrations and protests continued peacefully in Telangana and Seemandhra respectively on Wednesday.
No untoward incident was reported in either of the regions during the rallies or protests that were carried out in every nook and cranny of the two estranged regions. While the cadres of Congress, Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and other organisations joined the victory rallies marking the passage of the Bill in the Telangana region, it was the YSR Congress Party and the TDP that led today's bandh and protests against the passage of the same in all the 13 districts of coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema.
According to reports reaching here, the bandh was partial in several coastal districts of Seemandhra, including Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram, as shops and businesses reopened in the afternoon. However, in Kadapa and Kurnool, two of the Rayalaseema districts, it was total.
On Tuesday, the news of the passage of the Bill by the Lok Sabha triggered angry protests with political activists resorting to burning of the effigies of Congress leaders and party flags at Anakapalli in Visakhapatnam district and a few other places. Also TDP and YSRCP cadres tried to damage the statue of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in Tirupati town.
Protestors blocked the movement of public transport buses in many towns of Seemandhra while educational institutions and businesses downed shutters in the morning hours voluntarily across the 13 districts. On the other hand universities and educational institutions in the Telangana region witnessed loud celebrations with students using colours and fire crackers to express their collective joy. Hyderabad city, which has areas predominantly lived by people from the Seemandhra region, remained calm.
CM resignation a low-key affair
The resignation of chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy also turned out to be a low-key affair on Wednesday with majority of the MLAs and ministers from the Seemandhra region staying away. Not a single leader from the Telangana region was seen with him.
Dokka Manikya Varaprasad, a minister in Kiran Kumar's Cabinet, said Reddy simply ran away from the responsibility of steering the party in the ensuing elections after enjoying power for three-and-a-half years. Senior ministers, including Pradesh Congress Committee president B Satyanarayana vowed to continue in the Congress despite their opposition to the state division.
Also, no further protests were announced either by the YSRCP or the TDP in the Seemandhra region though their leaders targeted the Congress party singularly for carrying out the state bifurcation. TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu said they all failed to counter the game plan hatched by the Congress party aimed at dividing the state.