YSRCP's Bandh: Slight effect in the state

Bereft of support from other political parties, YSRC will be fighting a lonely battle in the form of enforcing a bandh in Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday in protest against the Centre's refusal to deliver Special Category Status (SCS).

After YS Jaganmohan Reddy announced at Kakinada on Saturday that his party was calling a bandh, the Congress on Monday made it clear that it would not support the bandh call. APCC president N Raghuveera Reddy told media-persons here that his party was against inconveniencing people by calling bandhs frequently.

Since the Working Committee of the AIIC had adopted a resolution that it would deliver Special Category Status to AP if elected to power, there was no point in going in for a bandh as the present regime has made it more than clear that it was against granting the SCS to AP. When Jaganmohan Reddy gave the call for bandh, he taunted the TDP to support his call since it claims that it too was fighting for SCS. 

He wanted all other parties to support his call but there was no response from any one of them, including the left parties who are busy with their own agitation programmes to rouse people against the BJP. Jaganmohan Reddy also dared the TDP MPs to resign to prove their credentials that they were wedded to the cause of the SCS.

He even suggested that all the TDP MPs and his MPs who have since resigned go on indefinite hunger strike, knowing fully well that the response would be cold from the TDP as it is its arch rival. He apparently asked TDP to join him in the fight only to expose that it was the TDP that was not as sincere as YSRC in fighting for the SCS.

The YSRC workers across the state already sensitised the people for Tuesday’s bandh. In several districts, they organised rallies in a warm-up exercise for the bandh. It is likely that the party workers would disrupt transportation by holding up vehicular traffic on Tuesday.