The Puducherry police have made an early morning arrest of ADMK leader Anbalagan on Wednesday when he had called for a bandh that wasn't completely supported his own party functionaries. Anbalagan is backing Edappadi Palaniswami's leadership in ADMK and he had been serving as the party's secretary in Puducherry.

Puducherry falls under the category of Union Territory though it has a state-elected assembly and government. Winning a statehood for Puducherry has been a prolonged political protest and despite being allied with the central ruling party, the Puducherry ruling party -NR Congress, led by N Rangasamy, has been demanding the Union government to provide a statehood for Puducherry. 

Recently, Chief Minister Rangasamy alleged that the centre is not taking appropriate measures to provide statehood for Puducherry due to which there are challenges and obstacles to run a government in Puducherry. As the voices to win a statehood grow in the territory, ADMK secretary Anbalagan had called for a one-day bandh and he planned to organize the strike on Wednesday - December 28. 

Though he called out for a bandh, there has been a division within the ADMK as most of the party cadres didn't support Anbalagan's drive and there wasn't a political consensus to roll-out the bandh. Opposition parties including DMK had urged to defer the bandh as organizing the strike during the Holiday season would dramatically affect the traders.  

However, Anbalagan didn't accept to defer the bandh and announced that it will happen as scheduled. Earlier, DMK's Puducherry unit approached Puducherry DGP and urged to ban the statewide bandh and based on DMK's petition, the Puducherry police arrested Anbalagan during the morning hours of Wednesday from his residence as a precautionary measure. He was apprehended ahead of staging a bandh and buses and shops in the territory are functioning without any disruption.