Hyderabad (Telangana): The newly-elected BJP MLAs in Telangana stayed away from the state Assembly on the first day on Saturday, protesting the appointment of AIMIM MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi as the pro-tem Speaker.
All eight MLAs of the saffron party boycotted the proceedings after a decision taken by state BJP president G. Kishan Reddy and later wrote to Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan protesting against the move. Kishan Reddy told media persons at the BJP office that the Congress government appointed Akbaruddin Owaisi as pro-tem Speaker under a "secret deal" with the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM).
He said that since Congress has a narrow majority in the Assembly and the government may collapse at any time, it joined hands with AIMIM. However, Kishan Reddy, who is also a union minister, claimed that Owaisi is not the senior-most MLA. The BJP also complained to Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan about his appointment.
T. Raja Singh was the first BJP MLA who had refused to take oath before Akbaruddin Owaisi. In the previous Assembly too, he had refused to take oath before AIMIM’s Mumtaz Ahmed Khan, who had served as pro-tem Speaker. All eight BJP MLAs had gathered at the BJP office in the morning. Kishan Reddy felicitated them.
Protesting against the decision of the party MLAs to attend the House, Raja Singh left the party office in a huff. He did not accompany them during their visit to the temple at historic Charminar. The BJP MLAs also paid tributes to Dr B. R. Ambedkar at the statue at Tank Bund and were reportedly planning to proceed to the Assembly. However, they dropped their plan on a direction from the party's central leadership. Following this, Kishan Reddy announced at a news conference that party MLAs will not take oath before Akbaruddin Owaisi. He said the party MLAs will take oath after a regular Speaker is elected.
Later in the day, the BJP MLAs arrived at Raj Bhawan to meet the Governor to condemn Owaisi's appointment. They also wrote to Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan in this regard. Citing violation of norms, the BJP MLAs urged the Governor to set aside the nomination of Akbaruddin Owaisi as interim speaker.
“In this context, the TS-BJP requests you to set aside the nomination of Sri Akbaruddin Owaisi as Protem Speaker as it constitutes a violation of norms and instructs appointment of the seniormost member. The TS-BJP also requests you 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. The TS-BJP, otherwise, will be compelled to refrain from taking oath in front of a person who is appointed against the norms,” the letter read.
Earlier, Akbaruddin Owaisi administered oath to the newly elected MLAs in the maiden session of the Third Telangana Assembly. Those who were administered first were Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka. This was after Owaisi was administered the oath by Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan as the Pro-tem Speaker of Telangana Assembly at a brief ceremony at the Raj Bhavan. Owaisi took the oath in the presence of Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy. As the Pro-tem Speaker, Owaisi runs the Assembly session until the new Speaker is elected.
Akburuddin was appointed as pro-tem speaker on Friday as he was the senior-most member of the recently elected Assembly. He has won from the Chandrayanagutta assembly constituency in Hyderabad city limits for the sixth consecutive term in the latest elections. The Congress won 64 MLA seats in the 119-member Telangana Assembly in the November 30 elections while the Bharata Rashtra Samithi (BRS) won 39 followed by BJP with eight, MIM seven and CPI one.
In the recent Assembly elections, the AIMIM led by its leader Asaduddin Owaisi, who is Hyderabad MP, announced its support to the BRS in all those constituencies where it did not field its candidates. (With Agency inputs)
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