BRS walks out over CM Revanth Reddy’s ‘abusive remarks’

The State Legislative Assembly on Wednesday witnessed an uproar after the main opposition, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), was denied an opportunity to counter a deliberate and intense attack launched by the treasury benches against the party and its president, Leader of Opposition K Chandrashekhar Rao. With its members prevented from countering the verbal attack on the floor of the House, as Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy led the attack with what the BRS called unparliamentary and intemperate language, BRS members staged a walkout from the Assembly.

The commotion began when Revanth Reddy repeatedly used derogatory language to speak about Chandrashekhar Rao, forcing the BRS members to walk into the well of the house to lodge their protest with the Speaker. Repeated attempts made by them to beat back the offensive of the Congress were thwarted. The BRS MLAs then walked out, and sought to give a rebuttal at least by speaking to the press at the Assembly Media Point. However, in a first in the recent history of the Telangana Assembly, the MLAs were denied even access to the Media Point by the marshals who said members were now prohibited to speak at the Media Point when the session was in progress.

The BRS members sought to know from the Chief Marshal whether there was any such rule preventing members from speaking to media. He assured to get back to them after talking to the Speaker. But as he did not turn up, the BRS members staged a protest near the BRSLP office.

Senior



MLA Kadiyam Srihari, who was scheduled to speak on the Vote-on-Account budget in the day, had to move out of the house with his mission left incomplete due to the continued attack from the treasury benches, after which he also joined party leaders KT Rama Rao and T Harish Rao in the protest.

Earlier, intervening in the discussion on the budget, Revanth Reddy made certain remarks against the Leader of the Opposition. His attempt was to contest Rao’s criticism at Tuesday’s public meeting at Nalgonda in disapproval of the Medigadda visit organised by the government by setting aside the business of during the crucial budget session. BRS members took strong exception to his comments and sought an opportunity to give a rebuttal.

Srihari said it was unbecoming on the part of the leader of the House to speak in such a manner. The tone and tenor he spoke with as the TPCC president would not go well as the Chief Minister of the State, he stressed.

Legislative Affairs Minister D Sridhar Babu, coming out in support of the Chief Minister, said the Leader of the Opposition was also not expected to make verbal attacks targeting the Chief Minister, whether it be within the House or elsewhere. Intervening at this stage, Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy also accused Srihari of scuttling the political opportunities of former Deputy Chief Minister T Rajaiah. The wordy duel between the two derailed the proceedings of the house, thus culminating in the maiden walkout of the BRS in the ongoing session.