Mild tension prevailed at C Block, housing the Chief Minister's office, inside Andhra Pradesh Secretariat this afternoon when employees belonging to coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions tried to barge into it.
Raising slogans against the Centre's decision to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh and demanding that Union Ministers and Congress MPs from Seemaandhra resign from their posts if they do not support the no-confidence motion against the UPA government, the Secretariat Seemaandhra Employees Forum initially staged a protest outside the C Block.
They tried to force their way into the C Block after more employees joined the protest but police prevented them, leading to a scuffle.
Forum convener Murali Krishna intervened and brought the situation under control.
Later, a delegation of Forum leaders went inside the C Block and handed over a representation to Chief Secretary P K Mohanty demanding that the state be kept united.
Earlier, veteran Congress MLA J C Diwakar Reddy joined the employees in protest and raised slogans against the Union Ministers and MPs from Seemaandhra region.
He assured the employees that the draft Bill on bifurcation of the state would certainly be defeated when it was referred to the Assembly for its opinion.
"We all will vote against the Bill," Diwakar Reddy asserted.
