NEW DELHI:
Telugu Desam Party (TDP) parliamentarians were today detained by police when they tried to protest near Prime Minister
Narendra Modi's residence at 7 Lok
Kalyan Marg here demanding special category status for
Andhra Pradesh.
The decision to protest was taken after the party MPs held meeting at
Rajya Sabha member and former union minister Y S Chowdary's residence in the morning to decide future course of action.
However, all the leaders were detained on the way to PM's residence by the Delhi Police and CRPF.
"The Prime Minister is the person to take decisions on SCS. He has to fulfill his promises and that is why we want to raise our demands with him," MP Jaydev Galla said.
Following their arrest, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal met with TDP MPs at Delhi's Tuglak Road Police Station.
"TDP MPs taken to Tughlak Road Police Stn for demanding Spl status for AP. I went and met them at police station in solidarity. We condemn their detention and fully support demand for spl status of AP," he tweeted.
Today's protest was the latest in a series of agitations staged by TDP and YSRCP to demand special category state status for Andhra Pradesh.
Earlier this week, five YSR Congress Party members in the Lok Sabha sat on hunger strike and submitted their resignation letters to Speaker Sumitra Mahajan over the "failure" of the Centre to meet its demand.
"People believed us that we will fight for SCS. If we still stick to our posts, it would be like cheating them. So we decided to quit and put pressure on the central government through our strike," YSRCP MP Mithun Reddy said at the Andhra Pradesh Bhawan.
On the same day, TDP's MPs staged a 'dharna' (sit in protest) at the Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan's chamber at Parliament, who wasn't present in her office.
Also, in Andhra Pradesh's Vijayawada city, Pawan Kalyan's Jana Sena and Left Parties organised a padyatra (foot-march) for the same.
Last month, TDP withdrew its ministers in the union cabinet and walked out of the NDA after the BJP-led Centre denied special category status to Andhra Pradesh.
The TDP had issued no-confidence motion notices against the government.
However, it was never taken up for discussion due to continuous disruptions in the Parliament.
(With inputs from agencies)
