Congress Stalls Telangana Assembly Over Defections

Accusing the ruling TRS of encouraging defections from the Opposition Parties, the Congress Party stalled the proceedings of the State Legislative Assembly on Monday.

The Assembly could not take up any regular business as the uproar created by the Congress members led to brief adjournments of the House twice, and later, for the day.

As soon as the House assembled on Monday, the Congress deputy floor leader T Jeevan Reddy and others moved an adjournment motion seeking a debate on the defections.

Wearing black badges, the Congress MLAs rushed to the podium and shouted slogans against the TRS Government while accusing it of killing democracy.

Speaker S Madhusudan Chary made futile attempts to calm down the agitating Congress legislators. Later, he adjourned the House for 10 minutes.

Similar uproarious scenes were witnessed when the House reassembled at 10:56 am, and the Speaker was forced adjourn it for half-an-hour at about 11:01 am.

The House met again at 12:22 pm, but it could not do any listed business due to the continued protests by the Congress MLAs. The Speaker then adjourned the House for the day at 12:31 pm.

While the Congress MLAs' protest was on, Panchayat Raj Minister K Taraka Rama Rao ridiculed their objections to their Party's MLAs joining the TRS.

He reminded that as many as 10 TRS MLAs were lured by the then ruling party Congress from 2004 to 2009, and that the disqualification petition was kept pending for about four-and-a-half years. He claimed that history was repeating itself.

Refuting the allegations of the TRS encouraging defections, he claimed that the MLAs themselves were joining the ruling Party due to the developmental programmes taken up by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao.

Similar views were expressed by Legislative Affairs Minister T Harish Rao who accused the Congress of giving birth to the culture of encouraging defections in Opposition Parties.

He listed out several instances wherein the Congress had lured the MLAs and MPs of Opposition Parties. He said that Ramlal was used to break the TDP led by the late N T Rama Rao. P V Narasimha Rao had been accused of damaging the Opposition groups. Similarly, three MPs from the State defected to the Congress during the vote in the Parliament on the US deal. Even Vijayashanti was encouraged to defect from the TRS to the Congress, he alleged.

Harish Rao said that the Congress had violated the decision taken during the BAC meeting of taking up adjournment motions after the Question Hour. By stalling the House, the Congress was trying to escape debating the public issues, he alleged. He said that the TRS Government was ready to reply on all the issues if the Opposition raised them through the proper channels. (INN)