Ruckus in Assembly as BRS, Cong spar bitterly

Hyderabad: There was uproar in the Assembly on Wednesday with the comments of Congress MLA Komarireddy Rajagopal Reddy against BRS leader T Harish Rao where the MLAs of both the ruling and opposition parties came into the well of the Speaker.

The issue came up during the discussion on the ‘Telangana State Finances- White Paper’. After Harish Rao ended his speech, the Congress MLA Rajagopal Reddy said that Harish Rao was not satisfied even after speaking for over an hour. The BRS chief has given good training to his nephew in speaking lies. “He has made comments against me that I will not get the minister's post. There is our chief minister and our high command to take a decision on the minister's post. But, no matter how hard you strive, it will be KTR after KCR. The father and son duo will use and will never allow you to get the CM’s post,” said Rajagopal Reddy. These comments of Rajagopal Reddy were in response to the comments of Harish Rao a day before in the Assembly.

This led to uproar in the House where the BRS MLAs came into the well seeking opportunity for Harish Rao to speak. Now it was the turn of the Congress MLAs to come near the front row. The Chief Whip Adi Srinivas came into the well of the Speaker. However, the Legislative Affairs Minister D Sridhar Babu called him back to his seat. Sridhar Babu said that it was not proper to pressurise the Speaker by coming into the well to seek mike. He also said that casting aspersions on the Speaker was not a good practice.

The Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar said that it was not good on part of Harish Rao to send his members into the well. Being a senior member, it is not good practice to send the newly elected members into the well. Intervening here, the Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka said that they had sat in the opposition benches for ten years and it was only two days in the new Assembly and the BRS members had no patience.

Raising a point of order, BRS member Kadiyam Srihari said that the Speaker has every right to regulate the business and he had given time to Harish Rao to speak but the Deputy Speaker asked the Speaker not to give the mike.

Later, after getting a chance to speak, Harish Rao said he had not taken Rajagopal Reddy’s name but the latter took his name. “We don’t need to pay Rs 50 crore to get the post of PCC president like your leaders,” said Rao. The angry Congress MLAs wanted Harish Rao to withdraw or urged the Speaker to expunge these comments. The Speaker expunged the comments of Harish Rao from the records.