Andhra special category status: YSR Congress MPs on hunger strike after resigning

Intensifying the protest over Andhra Pradesh Special Status all five Loksabha MPs of YSR Congress who submitted their resignations to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Friday sat on indefinite hunger strike at AP Bhawan in Delhi.

YSRCP chief Jagan Mohan Reddy had announced in February that the party's five MPs would resign if its demand for Special Category Status to Andhra Pradesh was not fulfilled by the Centre.

"Our party MPs would resign on the last day of the budget session and march to Andhra Bhavan in New Delhi where they would sit on an indefinite fast demanding Special Category Status (SCS). Across the state, there would be relay hunger strikes by students at their respective university campuses and at all assembly constituency levels by party cadres, youth other sections along with party state leaders," announced YS Jagan.

The YSR Congress and the TDP members have been agitating in both houses of Parliament ever since the second half of the Budget session commenced on March 5, demanding special category status to Andhra Pradesh. The TDP, which was an ally of the BJP, had also quit the NDA over the issue.