3 parties protest Speaker’s bias

The Congress, TD and the CPM on Thursday boycotted the Legislative Assembly session for a day to protest the biased attitude of Speaker and TRS government towards them in the House.

The parties were angry that they were not given adequate time to speak in the House.

They alleged that Speaker S. Madhusudhana Chary did not give them the opportunity to speak on the TS Land Acquisition Bill on Wednesday and passed the Bill unilaterally.

The parties submitted letters to the Speaker separately informing about their decision to boycott the session for a day in protest.

However, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and legislative affairs minister T. Harish Rao refuted these claims and said Opposition parties were given adequate time and treasury benches have never insulted or humiliated them. The CM accused Opposition of feeling jealous over TRS coming to power.

Mr Harish Rao came out with statistics in support of his claim that Opposition parties were allotted more time than the ruling party in the House.

The CM appealed to Opposition MLAs to withdraw their decision and urged them take part in the sesssion following which the Speaker also made an appeal. However, the MLAs did not return.

The Chief Minister said, “In a democracy, it’s common to win or lose elections. People will decide whom to elect. They gave an absolute majority to the BJP in 2014, a nonCongress party for the first time in independent India, to form government at Centre. In the same way, they elected the TRS to lead the first government in Telangana state. There is no need to feel jealous over this. We always treated Opposition parties with respect, seeking their suggestions on all issues."

HARISH RAO reeled out statistics in support of his claim that Opposition parties were allotted more time than the ruling party in the House.