Police yesterday detained several Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MPs while marching towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s residence to demand a special status for Andhra Pradesh.
The 21 MPs – including Ashok Gajapathi Raju and J C Diwakar Reddy – were bundled into a bus by police from Race Course Road in the heart of New Delhi from where they set out to reach the prime minister’s residence.
The MPs were taken to the Tughlaq Road police station from where they were released two hours later.
“We detained 21 TDP leaders marching towards the prime minister’s house shouting slogans and waving placards in the morning. They were released by 1pm,” a police official said.
Their rally started began early in the morning from Rajya Sabha member and former minister Y S Chowdary’s residence where they discussed the party’s future course of action. With yellow scarves around their necks, the protesters came ready with placards that said “Save Andhra Pradesh”.
“The prime minister is the person to take decisions on SCS (special category status). He has to fulfil his promises and that is why we want to raise our demands with him,” TDP lawmaker Jaydev Galla said.
 Just before the police thwarted their plans to meet Modi, they were visited by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal who offered his party’s support for their cause.
“TDP MPs taken to Tughlak Road Police Stn for demanding Spl status for AP. I went and met them at police stn in solidarity. We condemn their detention and fully support demand for spl status of AP,” Kejriwal tweeted.
“The demand being made by them is completely just. It is sad that the respectable MPs were sent to jail when they went to meet him,” Kejriwal later told reporters.
“This is not democracy, not correct. This is arrogance. We condemn this and completely support their demand,” the chief minister said.
The TDP staged a similar protest at the chamber of Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Friday after they failed to get an appointment with her. They were forcefully removed.
On Thursday, the Rajya Sabha witnessed high-voltage drama even after its proceedings were adjourned for the day as the TDP members continued their protest over their demand for a special category status for Andhra Pradesh.
The hours-long drama ended only at night after the TDP MPs were marshalled out of the House.
The TDP members described their eviction from the Rajya Sabha as an “insult to Andhra Pradesh”.
Meanwhile, all five Lok Sabha MPs of YSR Congress party resigned this week and are on a hunger strike at Andhra Bhavan in New Delhi.
The MPs are Y V Subbareddy, Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy, Y S Avinash Reddy, V Varaprasad Rao and P V Mithun Reddy.
“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,” Mithun Reddy said.
However, TDP supremo and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu hinted that unlike the YSRCP, his party MPs would not resign. Naidu also said that his party MPs would instead continue to fight and agitate and not run away from the scene.
Launching an attack on the central government, Naidu warned that the TDP will agitate more vociferously if the central government didn’t accord a special category status to Andhra Pradesh.
After failing to convince the central government to grant special status to Andhra Pradesh, the TDP chief announced his party’s exit from the Bharatiya Janata Part-led National Democratic Alliance last month. The TDP also tried to bring a no-confidence motion against the government. Naidu met several leaders of opposition parties and BJP allies to garner support for the no-trust motion, but it wasn’t taken up in the recently concluded session due to repeated adjournments in the parliament.