Stifling heat has killed more than 1,242 people in India in less than one week.
K Sriram Reddy ended his life after he was unable to pay back the money he had borrowed for agricultural purposes.
Control Rooms were set up in all the coastal districts and the situation was being monitored round-the-clock.
Normal life remained paralysed for the second consecutive day in the 13 districts of the coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions of the state following the bandh call by Andhra Pradesh Non-Gazetted Officers and YSR Congress against the tabling of the Telangana bill in Lok Sabha.
Pruthviraj Kandepi, who hailed from Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh, was killed in the shootout.
Jaganmohan Reddy, whose party has nine MPs, had already announced last month that his party parliamentarians would quit on April 6, at the end of the budget session, if the special category status was not granted.
Devastating Cyclone Hudhud caused damage worth thousands of crores in Visakhapatnam and other storm-hit areas of the coast, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said in the port city on Tuesday.
The death toll in the devastating floods in Andhra Pradesh rose to 63 on Tuesday even as the situation improved and outflows from Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar projects were being reduced gradually. The highest number of 38 deaths were reported in Kurnool district, followed by 20 in Mahabubnagar district, three in Nalgonda and one each in Krishna and Guntur.
Rao's death triggered a political slugfest in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh with the Telugu Desam Party holding the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government there responsible for the veteran leader's suspected suicide.
A Yuvajana Shramika Rythu Congress Party activist was on Wednesday arrested for allegedly posting 'irresponsible' comments on the social networking site Facebook regarding cyclone Hudhud which hit the North Andhra Pradesh coast earlier this month.
Parallel to this, the ruling Telugu Desam has been organising rallies across the state in solidarity with its MPs.
"With the death of RK, the outlawed CPI (Maoist) has lost its three central committee members and as many other senior cadres in the last two years. These deaths would certainly deplete the strength of the Naxal movement which has been losing its ground. Security forces would make an all-out attempt to soon bring an end to the five-decade-long mindless violence by ultras in the region," Inspector General of Police (Bastar range) Sundarraj P said.
What some of our leaders were up to this week.
'I have saluted thousands of senior officers during my 26 years of service, but saluting my own daughter made me very happy.'
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At least 16 people have died in flood-related incidents in Odisha, where the situation remained grim even as major rivers were receding on Saturday. Two deaths each were reported from Bhadrak, Jajpur and Nayagarh districts while in worst-hit Ganjam district it remained unchanged at six and four in Jagatsinghpur, Special Relief Commissioner P K Mohapatra told reporters here after the situation was reviewed by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
Heavy rains triggered by northeast monsoon and a low pressure area over Bay of Bengal lashed several parts of Andhra Pradesh for the fourth consecutive day on Friday, prompting authorities to evacuate thousands of people from low-lying areas.
Reddy assured her that an investigation would be conducted again into the University of Hyderabad student's suicide in 2016 and that justice would be done, an official release said.
Here's a recap of the events from the past 24 hours.
Party leaders and workers who were on their way to Naidu's residence were stopped by police and taken into preventive custody.
The baby has been rescued and sent to a child home.
Veteran legislator Kodela Sivaprasada Rao has been unanimously elected as the first Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Andhra Pradesh post bifurcation of the state.
Jaganmohan Reddy hopes for a hung Parliament to 'extract a better deal' for Andhra Pradesh, and says his party will sweep all 25 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
Earlier, a judicial panel reportedly rejected his caste status in its probe report.
This classification of districts is to be followed by states and union terrotories till a week post May 3, when the second phase of lockdown will end, for containment operations.
If you are in the vicinity of a flood affected area or near an aid camp, shoot a video and upload it on rediff iShare, and mail us the link at citizen.reporter@rediffmail.com
The Seemandhra Lawyers Joint Action Committee on Thursday said about 18 lakh cases were pending in various courts in 13 districts of Seemandhra as their protest against the Centre's decision to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh entered 100th day today.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Wednesday approved seven multi-tracking projects of Indian Railways at an estimated cost of around Rs 32,500 crore, Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said. The proposed projects, which will be fully funded by the Centre, will help increase the existing line capacity, smoothen train operations, reduce congestion and facilitate ease of travelling and transportation. The projects covering 35 districts in nine states -- Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal -- will increase the existing network of Indian Railways by 2,339 km and provide employment of an estimated 7.06 crore man-days to the people of the states.
The humiliation for the Telugu Desam Party was such that it could cross the double digit in only five urban local bodies while other opposition parties Bharatiya Janata Party and Jana Sena Partymade little gains.
In its closure report on Rohith Vemula's death, the Telangana police claimed he was not a Dalit and died by suicide in 2016 as he feared that his "real caste" would be discovered.
'He keeps reminding me he is senior. There is no debate in this. I have never shown any disrespect to you since you are a senior,' the PM said.
The government noted in its order that "the right to conduct a public meeting on public roads and streets is a subject matter of regulation as Section 30 of the Police Act, 1861 itself mandates."
British Indian MP Keith Vaz on Tuesday called for the world-famous 'Koh-i-Noor' diamond to be returned to India during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's UK visit in November.
The 26-member Cabinet, including the Chief Minister, has three women members; two from the Scheduled Castes and one from the Scheduled Tribes.
As many as 71,000 people continued to be in 300 relief camps in six coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh even as the cyclonic storm 'Laila' further weakened into a deep depression and lay centred over the north coastal area about 50 km north of Machilipatnam.
Flood-ravaged AP heaves sigh of relief as depression further weakens
Cyclone Laila batters Andhra Pradesh. Images.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah's three-day visit to the flood-hit areas in Kurnool, Guntur and Krishna districts turned out to be a bitter experience after angry people stopped his convoy at many places, shouted slogans against him, and even stoned the bus he was traveling in in Kurnool district.
Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil on Tuesday arrived in Vijayawada from New Delhi to visit the flood-hit areas for making an assessment of the damage caused by 'Ogni'.
