BJP MLAs reject Akbaruddin Owaisi as pro-tem speaker; refuse to attend first Telangana Assembly session

Hyderabad: The first session of the Telangana State Legislative Assembly after the recently concluded state elections witnessed the absence of many Congress, BRS and BJP MLAs who did not take the oath of office.

Among the many are former chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, who recently underwent a hip replacement surgery. BRS working president KT Rama Rao and a few other MLAs couldn’t attend the session owing to the medical condition of the BRS supremo. From the Congress end, two ministers Uttam Kumar Reddy and Komati Reddy Venkat Reddy did not take the oath.

However, the BJP MLAs have a peculiar reason to not take oath; all eight of them refused to attend the first Assembly session because AIMIM Chandrayangutta MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi was appointed as the pro-tem speaker. The MLAs instead visited the Bhagyalakshmi Temple near Charminar and sought the blessings of the Goddess.

Issue of seniority

Giving the reason for their absence in a letter addressed to the governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, the BJP MLAs said, “The government chose to nominate Akbaruddin Owaisi of MIM as the pro-tem speaker. It is unfortunate that, at the very beginning of the newly elected Telangana Assembly, there was a blatant violation of procedures, protocols and precedents. As per Article 188 of the Constitution, a seniormost member in terms of the number of years in the Assembly should be nominated as the pro-tem speaker. Although many members are senior to Akbaruddin Owaisi, the government chose to appoint him as the pro-tem Speaker, which is a clear violation of the set norms.”

“The TS-BJP takes strong objection to the way the norms are being flouted wilfully by the government to pander to certain sections of the people in pursuit of appeasement politics. In this context, the TS-BJP requests you to set aside the nomination of Akbaruddin Owaisi as the pro-tem speaker as it constitutes a violation of norms, and instructs appointment of the seniormost member, irrespective of his/her affiliation to any political party, as the pro-tem speaker,” they said.

Request to withhold speaker’s election

In the letter, the TS-BJP MLAs also requested the governor to instruct the officials concerned to withhold the process of election of a new full-time speaker for the newly constituted Assembly pending nomination of a seniormost member as speaker.

“Otherwise, we will be compelled to refrain from taking oath in front of a person who is appointed against the norms,” the letter said.

The BJP MLAs who refused to take oath are Adilabad MLA-elect B Payal Shanker; Kamareddy MLA-elect K Venkata Ramana Reddy; Nizamabad Urban MLA-elect Dhanpal Suryanarayana Gupta; Sirpur MLA-elect Palvai Harish Babu; Mudhole MLA-elect Rama Rao Patel; Armoor MLA-elect Paidi Rakesh Reddy and Nirmal MLA-elect Aleti Maheshwar Reddy. Goshamahal MLA T Raja Singh was the first to refuse to attend the oath-taking ceremony.