Will contest 50 seats, says Akbar

Hyderabad: The Assembly witnessed verbal banter between IT Minister KT Rama Rao and AIMIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi when the minister objected to giving more time to a party which has just seven members in the House as the Majlis leader said that they would contest in 50 seats and win 15 seats in the next Assembly.

This was during the discussion on 'Motion of Thanks to the Governor's Address' in the Assembly on Saturday when Akbaruddin said that the Assembly sessions were being cut short by the government. He said that during the last four and half years, the Assembly sat for just 64 days only. The ministers don't bother to discuss in the Assembly and were seen more on the TV debates. He recalled that his party had given a representation to run the house for 20 days. When the ruling party members said that the MIM leader was not in the BAC meeting, Owaisi pointed out that CM K Chandrashekar Rao was also not in the meeting.

Responding to this, Rama Rao said that the members should speak in a respectful manner. He said that it was not proper to allow more time for a party with just seven MLAs. Rao said, the MIM leader does not come to the BAC, he is talking as if the House did not sit at all. "You have been given ample opportunity seeing the number of MLAs your party has. Instead of the leader of the House, ministers were present in the meeting. You also should follow the time regulation," said Rao referring to Owaisi.

Responding to this, Akbaruddin said he was not a newcomer in the House and he had talked in the House several times. Go and check records, MIM was allotted a good number of time and opportunities. You can talk anytime but the objection was the lack of tolerance level. Earlier, when I used to talk in the Assembly, Minister Rosaiah used to come and say 'Akbar, you talked well'," said Akbaruddin.

He also congratulated the ruling party leaders for BRS stating that when his party had decided to contest outside the state, they were branded as B Team of BJP and questioned what would the BRS be called.The Legislative Affairs Minister V Prashanth Reddy said that there was no doubt that Owaisi talks well but the problem was he was getting angrier. Later, during the clarification, Owaisi said that he would urge his president to contest in 50 seats in the State and come to the Assembly by winning 15 seats.

Earlier, he said that there was no mention of 'step motherly' attitude by the Centre towards Telangana in the Governor's Address. He demanded the government to hold discussion on this in the current session. He also questioned the sanctity of the sessions stating that the House was not prorogued.