Opposition Congress, BJP and students' outfits Tuesday stepped up protests over the alleged goof-up in Intermediate exam results, with state BJP president K Laxman continuing his indefinite fast and Congress vowing keep up its fight till justice is done to affected students.
Laxman, who was shifted to a state-run hospital hours after he lauched an indefinite fast on Monday, continued his fast, BJP sources said.
BJP has called for a bandh on May 2.
The party's demands include sacking Education Minister G Jagadeesh Reddy, suspension of the secretary of the Board of Intermediate Education (BIE), judicial inquiry into the entire episode and compensation to families of students who allegedly committed suicide.
The Congress Tuesday said it would keep up its fight till "justice is done to the students."
AICC incharge of Congress affairs in Telangana R C Khuntia in a statement alleged that the government had not responded to the protests and only tried to put them down.
BJP MP Bandaru Dattatraya, party MLC N Ramchander Rao and scores of party workers were taken into preventive custody for trying to hold a protest near Hussain Sagar lake here in protest against the police action of "forcibly" shifting Laxman while he was on an indefinite fast.
On Tuesday, some Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha members were taken into preventive custody by police when they tried to march towards the official residence-complex-cum camp office of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.
Talking to reporters later, Dattatreya claimed that about 25 students had committed suicide over the results issue.
He alleged that the TRS government tried to foil the indefinite fast of Laxman in the hospital by giving him suggestions like getting fluids administered or to go home.
Slamming the TRS government for not allowing BJP's proposed protests, the former Union Minister alleged that the party was creating an "emergency-like situation".
Claiming that about 5,000 BJP activists had either been taken into preventive detention or during state-wide protests, he said his party would draw the attention of the Home Ministry if the state continued to have this attitude.
Suspecting corruption, state Congress working president A Revanth Reddy demanded to know why a private firm was favoured over a government entity in handling the Intermediate results.
The exams were held in February and March this year and the results were declared on April 18.
Ever since the results were announced, many students and parents have been approaching the TSBIE office, alleging goof-up in the paper valuation.
While some students claimed they had either failed or got poor marks though they had performed well, parents of others said their wards are meritorious and expressed shock that they failed in the exams or had scored very less marks.
Blaming the TRS government for the goof-up in the results, Congress, TDP, CPI and Telangana Jana Samiti jointly called for a 'Maha Dharna' and tried to hold a demonstration in front of the TSBIE office Monday, but police foiled their attempts and took several of them into preventive custody.
The Telangana High Court had on Monday directed the state government and TSBIE to re-tally by May 8, marks of over three lakh of the nine lakh students declared failed and submit a report to it.
The government constituted three member committee of technical experts, tasked with looking into the charges of discrepancies in the declaration of results, had in its report pointed out some lapses and suggested steps for improvement.
The Chief Minister has already directed the officials not to charge any fee for re-verfication and re-counting from failed students.
The government has also announced that failed students need not apply for re-counting and re-verification.
Thousands of students, who passed the exams, have also applied for re-verification.
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