BJP Slams Assembly Speaker For Sidelining It

The BJP Legislature Party (BJLP) of the state today slammed Assembly Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy alleging that he was not inviting it to the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) of the Assembly under the influence of the MIM.

Speaking to the media at the state party office, BJP MLA M Raghunandan Rao said that the TRS-led state government had not invited them to the BAC meeting even once after it came into power for the second consecutive term.

"The Speaker is deliberately not inviting us to the BAC meeting. We have respect for the Speaker's chair. However, the attitude of the Speaker towards us is unfair. We were invited after the formation of the first government of the TRS, but are not invited now. The Speaker has no answer when we ask him for the reason behind not inviting us to the meeting," Rao said.

He also asked the Speaker to show the rule which prohibited him from inviting to the BAC a party with a low number of MLAs. He also wanted to know how the state government was inviting CLP leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka to the meeting even after the merger of the CLP with the TRS. And pointing out that Vikramarka was not questioning the decision of the TRS government to not invite the BJP to the BAC, Rao alleged that both the Congress and the TRS were one and the same.

He said that the main issue was that the house was not being controlled by the Speaker, and that he was merely a proxy. He claimed that he was not alone in feeling that way, and that the Speaker was getting a reputation that he was working under the influence of the CM.

Rao said that the BJP would hold a protest program at the Mahatma Gandhi statue on the premises of the Assembly on Monday protesting the decision of the Speaker to not invite the party's MLAs to the BAC meeting, by wearing black badges.

He also demanded that the KCR government implement all the old customs and conventions of the house, and said that the TRS would meet the same fate as its predecessor the TDP if it implemented new customs and conventions.

Commenting on the decision of the BAC to hold the house for just five days, he termed the decision as unfortunate.

BJLP leader Raja Singh concurred with his colleague, and demanded that the government hold the Assembly session for one month to hold discussions on all important public problems.

Earlier, Rao and Singh paid tributes at the B R Ambedkar statue at the Tank Bund on the first day of the Assembly session. They then went in a padayatra from the statue to the Assembly.