Speaker exceeding jurisdiction, allege TDP lawmakers

Hyderabad: Alleging that the Telangana State Assembly Speaker S Madhusudhana Chary overstepped his jurisdiction, TDP legislators Sandra Venkata Veeraiah and R Krishnaiah said that his party would approach the Election Commission of India (ECI) seeking a clarification on this issue. Addressing a joint press conference here on Saturday, the duo said that the Assembly Secretariat has released the details of the time allocated to each party and their strength in the State Assembly during the recently concluded session.

According to the details released, the MLAs who had crossed over from Congress to the TRS had been shown still belonging to the Congress. However, when it comes to the TDP, the data shows that the strength of the party is only three. This shows that the Speaker had recognised the MLAs who had crossed over to TRS, from TDP, as if they were merged with the TRS.

But, registering, according recognition and notifying merger fall within the jurisdiction of the ECI and not that of the Speaker, Veeraiah said. Despite, his party had repeatedly asked for taking action against the TDP MLAs defected to TRS, under anti-defection laws, the Speaker had not acted upon. It was against this backdrop that his party decided to approach the ECI, seeking a clarification from it on the issue, Veeraiah said.

Referring to the unilateral decision to adjourn the house sine-die, R Krishnaiah said that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had informed in the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) meeting that the government wanted to conduct the session for 50 days.

However, without convening the BAC, the session had been ended after 16 days, which amount to a unilateral decision making on the part of the ruling party using its number strength, he said. He demanded the government to convene a special session for two days to exclusively discuss the issues related to the SC, ST, and BCs instead of holding meetings with the MLAs belonging to those sections.