Left parties’ bandh today

Vijayawada: Slamming the Modi government for neglecting Andhra Pradesh in the Union Budget, the Left parties have called for State bandh on February 8 and appealed to the leaders of non-political joint action committee (JAC) to participate it in large numbers and make the bandh a grand success.

The left party leaders also criticised the MPs of Andhra Pradesh for their stony silence at the time Prime Minister Narendra Modi making his speech in Parliament. CPI state secretary K Ramakrishna wrote a letter to the Chief Minister requesting him to join hands with all the parties to participate in the bandh.

On the other hand, Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan also made a call to Ramakrishna extending his party support to the bandh. Pawan Kalyan also said that they would meet on February 11 to chalk out action plan for special category status issue.  

Besides, the leaders of city, CPI and CPM gave call for bandh and appealed to citizens to cooperate with them in extending their support for protecting the state interests.

CPI city secretary Donepudi Shankar and CPM city secretary Donepudi Kasinath campaigned in the city on bandh on Wednesday. They requested the various associations and traders to extend their cooperation for making bandh a success.

The leaders said that they would stage a protest demonstration before the Pundit Nehru Bus Station at 5 am and later the bike rally would proceed in the city streets.

In a separate meeting, non-political JAC meeting has appealed to all parties, unions, people's representatives to fight for protecting the interests of the state. 

CPM state secretary P Madhu said the political parties should fight united against the BJP government at the Centre, which failed to protect state interests in the budget.  

Congress official spokesperson Kolanukonda Sivaji criticised the Andhra Pradesh MPs for their silence instead of staging protests at the time Prime Minister Narendra Modi was addressing Parliament. Meanwhile, the managements of all educational institutions declared that they are closing their institutions in the city.