Telangana Assembly Turns Into Battlefield

The floor of the Telangana State Legislative Assembly resembled a war zone on Saturday with members of the ruling and opposition parties raining abuses and even blows at each other.

While the opposition parties tried to disrupt the address by Governor E S L Narasimhan to the Telangana Legislature on the first day of the budget session, the TRS members foiled the attempt by using physical strength.

It was a no-holds-barred situation for all. As soon as the Governor arrived in the House at about 10:56 am, the opposition members started shouting "shame-shame" accusing him of remaining mute on the defections of the opposition MLAs to the ruling party in violation of the Anti-Defection Law.

They were particularly critical of the Governor administering oath to TDP MLA Talasani Srinivas Yadav as a state cabinet minister without acceptance of his resignation.

The Governor was received by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, Council Chairman Swamy Goud, Assembly Speaker S Madhusudan Chary, Legislative Affairs Minister T Harish Rao and Legislature Secretary Dr S Raja Sadaram. But the opposition members resorted to intense slogan-shouting even before they were seated. Some opposition members continued shouting without even realising that the National Anthem was being played in the House. After the Governor himself signalled in vain to the opposition members to remain silent in deference to the National Anthem, Leader of the Opposition K Jana Reddy had to intervene to silence his party's legislators.

The slogan-shouting resumed when the Governor started his address to the House. The TDP legislators led by Errabelli Dayakar Rao rushed to the podium. They were followed by the Congress MLAs and MLCs. But before they could go close to the Governor, marshalls rushed in and formed a human chain to prevent them from coming closer to the podium.

Meanwhile, the TRS MLAs too rushed to the podium. While one group of TRS legislators formed a human chain around the podium, another indulged in exchange of abuses with the opposition members.

Later, Legislative Affairs Minister and Deputy CM Kadiam Srihari called the TRS members back to their seats. The situation then turned tense with members of both treasury and opposition benches hurling abuses and blows at each other. Some members tore the copies of Governor's address and threw missiles on Narasimhan.

Interestingly, the happenings in the House did not deter the Governor from delivering his address. Amid continuous slogan-shouting and chaos, he read out 16 pages of his speech in about 17 minutes. He began and concluded his speech in Telugu, while he read out the remaining portion in English.

The Chief Minister remained silent throughout the speech and did not even look at the protesting legislators. He kept his eyes focused only on the speech copy.

The House turned silent at the end of Governor's speech at about 11:14 am. All members stood in silence for the National Anthem. However, the TDP members shouted "Governor Down Down" slogans when Narsimhan was leaving the House. (INN)