Tension mounted in Andhra Pradesh as the health of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief K Chandrasekhara Rao, on an indefinite fast to press for a separate state, deteriorated today and police, gearing for street protests from tomorrow, turned Hyderabad into a fortress.

Hundreds of students from across Telangana are expected to march to the state Assembly building tomorrow. The students have threatened to overrun the Assembly complex and declare a separate Telangana state.

The police and paramilitary forces on Wednesday took hundreds of students into preventive custody. The joint action committee (JAC) of Osmania University students association has appealed to students across Telangana to converge at the Assembly building on Thursday.

IGP AR Anuradha told reporters they had information that Maoists would try to sneak into the march called by the JAC and the TRS.

Police also detained six lecturers who were backing the students. Around 9 am, some 3,200 security personnel surrounded the students, split them into small groups and took them into preventive custody before they could put up resistance.

By afternoon, except for television crews and media persons, the Osmania University was deserted. Earlier, police evicted hundreds of students who were in the 12 hostels after the university administration ordered the students to vacate them.

But in a setback for authorities, the AP High Court today set aside a government order closing all universities and colleges in Hyderabad and nine other districts in Telangana region till December 19. The JAC had challenged the closure order in the High Court. A single-judge bench also directed the government to reopen all hostels and ordered that water and electricity supply be restored.

In Parliament, members urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to intervene and defuse the Andhra crisis and persuade the TRS chief to withdraw his fast.

Chief minister K Rosaiah flew into Delhi for talks with the Prime Minister and Congress president Sonia Gandhi to discuss the situation.

Opposition leader LK Advani urged the government to intervene. ?Both Telangana and Rao are important,? he said. Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar said: ?It is the wish of the entire House that he regains good health soon.?

The state Assembly was adjourned for the second day today. Expressing concern over Rao?s health and the need to maintain law and order, Assembly Speaker N Kirankumar Reddy, chief minister Rosaiah and Opposition leader Chandrababu Naidu appealed to him to call off the fast.