Belying fears of widespread violent protests against the pro-Telangana state decisions of the Congress Working Committee and the UPA Coordination Committee in Rayalaseema and Nellore district, only sporadic incidents of violence were reported in Chittoor, Madanapalle and Pileru in Chittoor district. No incident of violence was reported from the other three districts of Rayalaseema as also Nellore district.
The massive deployment of Central paramilitary forces seems to have prevented the outbreak of any serious violence.
In Chittoor town, some Seemandhra activists set afire two autorickshaws after enforcing a market bandh in the town. Paramilitary forces reached the trouble spots and dispersed the miscreants. Tense situation prevailed in the disturbed areas.
In Madanapalle and Pileru, miscreants pelted some buses with stones damaging the wind-shields of two of them.
The protests against the Centre’s move were confined to rallies and dharnas and sloganeering.
In Tirupati, the Sri Venkateswara University (SVU) campus was deserted in the day with heavy contingents of police deployed in nearby areas.
In the evening, a handful of students came there and burnt some tyres and staged a rasta roko on the Tirupati - Chittoor road for some time.
They raised slogans against UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi for her decision to carve out a separare Telangana state and warned that the people of the state would teach a bitter lesson to the ruling party in the next elections unless it reversed its decision by then. Finally, the police arrested the protesting students and later let them off.
Extending his support to the agitating students, SVU Professor Srikanth Reddy told Express that the bifurcation of the state would prove detrimental to all the people of the state.
Soon after the announcement of the Congress Core Committee decision on Telangana, Tirupati YSRC MLA Bhumana Karunakar Reddy staged a rasta roko at Nalugukalla Mandapam denouncing the decision.
Earlier in the day, the Samaikyandhra Students JAC, along with the APNGOs, held a meeting christened as ‘Samaikyandhra Garjana’. They called for educational institutions bandh in the district on Wednesday; laying siege on the residences of all the ministers from both the Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions on August 1 demanding their resignations; staging rasta rokos on August 2 and surrounding the residences of MLAs demanding that they too join the Samaikyandhra movement after tendering resignations.
The students formed a a massive human chain at the Telugu Talli statue, the entry point of Tirupati from the East, obstructing the movement of vehicles on all the directions of the busy junction for some time demanding that the Centre should keep the state unified.
In Kadapa, JAC convenor S Ramachandra Reddy launched an indefinite hunger-strike in front of the district collectorate and burnt Sonia Gandhi in effigy.
In Nellore, a group of protestors came on to the roads in the town but were arrested by the police.