The one-day Andhra Pradesh bandh, called by Opposition parties and endorsed by the Congress government today, met with ‘near total’ success, with schools, government offices and bus services remaining closed. Railway services were partially distrupted this morning, as Telugu Desam and Telangana Rashtra Samiti workers staged ‘rail rokhos’ at Secundrabad and Nampally stations. The bandh was called to protest against the Supreme Court’s decision to set aside the new law reserving a 27 per cent quota for OBCs in higher educational insititutes.

TRS Chief K Chandrasekhar Rao and his party workers were taken into custody by the police at Nampally station when they tried to disrupt rail traffic. Senior TDP Leader T Devender Goud, Narayana of the CPI and backward classes leader Krishnaiah were also arrested at Secunderabad station. They were later released by the police, but TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu said that the arrests showed that the ruling party was actually trying to foil the strike, and its support of the bandh was “a farce”.

Trains resumed normal operations by early afternoon.

In a rare gesture, the Congress too supported the bandh.

Colleges remained closed, and examinations scheduled for today were postponed. Schools, however, were not asked to shut down and it was left to them to take a decision on the matter. While a few schools remained open, most of them closed down expecting trouble on the roads.

Yesterday, Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy had asked the APSRTC, which runs services across the state’s 23 districts, to suspend services till today evening. Traffic on state and national highways was also hit this morning, as protestors squatted on roads, and did not allow cars to move. Police had to clear the roads.