AP Assembly Empowers Speaker To Punish Unruly Opposition Leaders

The issue of the obstruction of TDP MLAs and MLCs into the Assembly premises by marshals rattled the Andhra Pradesh Assembly on Friday.

Chief Minister Y S Jaganmohan Reddy alleged that Leader Of Opposition Chandrababu Naidu and his son had abused the marshals in filthy language.

He said that while Naidu had called a security officer a "bastard", Naidu's son and TDP MLC Nara Lokesh had gone a step ahead and strangled another security employee.

The State government presented videos of the exchange of words between the TDP leaders and the marshals for the perusal of the members.

The TDP leaders maintained that they were manhandled by the marshals.

Later, the Assembly adopted a resolution empowering the Speaker to take necessary action against elected representatives and others who had created a ruckus on the Assembly premises on Wednesday/Thursday.

Reading out the resolution, Minister for Legislative Affairs Buggana Rajendranath said, "The House resolves to empower Speaker Tammineni Sitaram to take appropriate action against the legislators and others responsible for the unruly incident that took place in the Assembly premises on Thursday."

The resolution was adopted by the House by a voice vote.

Earlier, after sensing the mood of the House which was in favour of taking action against Naidu for his unparliamentary utterances, unruly behaviour and foul language against the officials, the Speaker asked the former Chief Minister to express regret for the incident, failing which he would need to go by the collective sense of the House.