Vijayawada: The day-long state-wide bandh called by YSR Congress over the special category status issue for Andhra Pradesh began on Saturday with party workers and leaders staging protests in front of bus deports belonging to the State Road Transport Organisation (APSRTC).

As precautionary measure, Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada city police have taken over 250 persons into preventive custody. YSR Congress president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has appealed to people to make the bandh a success. Most of the important leaders were either taken into preventive custody or kept in 'house arrest', a senior YSRCP leader alleged.