Hyderabad:
Telangana Rashtra Samiti supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao who planned to go on a fast-unto-death on Sunday morning to press for a separate Telangana state has been arrested just hours before his fast.
He has been sent to judicial remand for 15 days.
The police stopped him on his way from Karimnagar to Siddipet, the venue of his fast.
Rao has been charged with disrupting regional peace. Police have registered a case against him.
Police also disrupt attempts by other TRS leaders to go on fast.
News channels were blacked out in several towns in Telangana region.
Through his fast, Chandrasekhar Rao is once again trying to mount pressure on the UPA government to grant statehood to Telangana.
"Inspite of our repeated requests to the highest offices at the Centre and the state, the response was very poor. Ultimately, that led to my decision to undertake this fast-unto-death,'' Rao said on Saturday.
The TRS fared poorly in the Lok Sabha and assembly elections in April-May this year.
This desperate and dramatic move by KCR is said to be an attempt to regain some of the credibility and political space he has lost in the region.
In August 2006, he sat on a fast in New Delhi over the same issue. He was, however, persuaded to call it off after two days.