The YSR Congress Party called for a statewide bandh in Andhra Pradesh on Saturday demanding a special status for the state, affecting several public services.

Members of the Communist Party of India(CPI) and CPI (Marxist) also joined the call for the special status.

Shops and business were shut in many parts of the state, while protesters disrupted bus services of the State Road Transport Organisation (APSRTC). 

UPDATES

  • 2,000 activists of the protesting parties have been detained in Srikakulam, The Hindu reported. 100 others have also been detained in Guntur, the newspaper reported. 
  • As many as 250 people have been taken into preventive custody in Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada, PTI reported. 
  • Activists of the parties halted buses from plying from the APSRTC bus depot, thus, affecting the bus services, The Hindu reported. 
  • The images from the state showed shops with shutters down and many businesses were closed.
  • The demand for the special status turned tense on Friday, after a 40-year-old man committed suicide over the issue.

"The bandh call given by the YSRCP on August 29 is not for me but for the benefit of the future of the State and its people... The TDP cheated the people of AP by making a false promise on granting special status to the State at the time of the last Lok Sabha elections," YSRCP president YS Jaganmohan Reddy had reportedly said. 

Reddy had hit out at Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu for failing to keep his electoral promise, accusing him of changing his stance for a 'special status' to a 'special package'.

Naidu had called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi earlier this week, but the latter only promised a 'special package', as per reports. 

The demand for a special status is to ensure that Andhra Pradesh can get a bigger percentage of grants from the Central funds as well as exemption of taxes for industries. 

Protesting parties have claimed that a 'special category status' was part of the assurances under the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014.

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