Visakhapatnam: With police placing all senior leaders under house arrest, the state-wide bandh called by the Telugu Desam against the attacks on its party offices by ruling YSRC activists hardly evoked any response on Wednesday.
A dispirited TD chief N. Chandrababu Naidu has decided to go on a 36-hour Deeksha from Thursday and sent a letter to the President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, complaining against the YSRC.
Some traders voluntarily closed down shops for one or two hours in the morning. This apart, the bandh did not affect the normal public activities. Police effected house arrest for several TD leaders with the aim of foiling the bandh plan and ensure law and order.
Rain at many places including Vizag in the morning also proved to be a dampener to the TD activists to take the agitation to a more vigorous level. Vizag city received a maximum of 35mm of rainfall on Wednesday.
In Vizag region, Velagapudi Ramakrishna Babu and Palla Srinivas among other senior leaders were put under house arrest. In Nellore, S Chandramohan Reddy, Abdul Aziz, Beeda Ravichandra and Kotamreddy Srinivasulu were kept under house arrest.
In Tirupati, police arrested and shifted 29 TD workers to Chandragiri, 21 to Tiruchanoor, 19 to East division and three to West division police stations.
In Kadapa, MLC Mareddy Rabindranath, Kashibhatla Satyasainatha Sharma, Hariprasad and Govardhan Reddy were put under house arrest. In Kurnool, Kotla Suryaprakash and Bhumabramhananda Reddy and some others were also detained in a similar manner.
In Anantapur, TD politburo member Kalava Srinivasulu was arrested while trying to stage a roadblock on NH 44 on Bellary bypass. Hindupur Parliamentary segment convener Parthasarathi was put under house arrest at Ramnagar.
Naidu announced he would go on a '36-hour Deeksha' at the TD central party office in Mangalagiri in protest against the ransacking of the party office. Naidu would begin his Deeksha at 8 am on Thursday and it will end at 8 pm on Friday. He alleged the involvement of YSRC leaders in the latest attacks on the TD offices across the state.
Naidu also wrote to Union home minister Amith Shahalleging state-sponsored terror against people and political parties. “The AP police are colluding with the attackers,” he said, adding, the YSRC also filed false cases against TD members.
