Defection of a Congress MlA to Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) once again created pandemonium in the State Assembly on Tuesday leading to the suspension of 13 Congress MlAs for the day. Upset over the suspension of his party members, the Congress legislature party leader K Jana Reddy also walked out of the House.
It was a day of high drama from the morning with the Congress members rushing to the Podium of the Speaker demanding disqualification of K Yadaiah who had defected to the TRS. The Congress members also carried placards charging the TRS and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Reddy with the "murder of democracy".
Slogans of "Save Democracy" echoed the House. As the order could not be restored in the House even after the Speaker A Madhusudana Chary adjourned the House twice, legislative Affairs Minister T Harish Rao moved the resolution suspending 13 members.
Marshals had to be brought in to forcibly shift the suspended members out of the House as they refused to budge and continued their protests.
The suspended members include Uttam Kumar Reddy, Sampath Kumar, Geeta Reddy, DK Aruna, Ramreddy Venkat Reddy, Kmoatreddy Venkat Reddy, Ramohan Reddy, Jeevan Reddy, Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and others.
later, the suspended members staged a sit-in outside the Assembly with placards in their hands. Addressing the media at the Media Point, Geeta Reddy held the Chief Minister responsible for the situation. "It is shameful that the Chief Minister himself was encouraging defections", she said. "We have been demanding the discussions on this issue for the last two days but the Government was refusing".
Recalling that the Congress president Sonia Gandhi had fulfilled decades old aspirations of the people by forming Telangna State, Geeta Reddy said that the TRS was targeting such a party and luring the party MlAs to join his party.
Another Congress member Jeevan Reddy said the Chief Minister was acting against the Constitution. legislative Affairs Minister T Harish Rao said that the Government was forced to take the step of suspending Congress members as they were stalling the proceedings and wasting the precious time of the House. "They are not interested in any meaningful discussions. Their only interest is to be in the news by creating trouble in the House", he said. Earlier last week, ten members of Telugu Desam Party were also suspended from the Assembly for disrupting the House.