YSR Congress ends fast in New Delhi

The indefinite strike by YSR Congress MPs ended on Wednesday with the Delhi police sending protesting leaders P.V. Mithun Reddy and Y.S. Avinash Reddy to Rammanohar Lohia Hospital here after their health deteriorated. They have been on a hunger strike for the past 125 hours.

Five YSRCP MPs had gone on an indefinite hunger strike on April 6 after submitting their resignations to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan demanding that the Centre give Andhra Pradesh special category status without any further delay.

Nellore MP Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy, 73, was sent to hospital on Saturday and Tirupati MP Vara Prasadarao Vellagapalli fell ill on Sunday. On Monday, their parliamentary party leader Y.V. Subba Reddy was admitted to hospital.

‘No response’

The strike has failed to evoke any response from the Narendra Modi government or the Opposition parties. Only CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, CPI leader D. Raja and JD(U) rebel Sharad Yadav had visited the fasting parliamentarians.

“I got discharged only today [Wednesday]. Two of our MPs are still in hospital. We will decide the future course of action once all our MPs are back on their feet and we discuss with our party president Jaganmohan Reddy,” Y.V. Subba Reddy told The Hindu.

For now, the party has folded the protest in the Capital and will concentrate on holding protests in the State.