The first day of the Telangana Assembly had all the hallmarks of a stormy affair to be witnessed for the rest of its term with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) infusing a ‘communal’ tone by refusing to take oath from Pro-tem Speaker Akaburuddin Owaisi, who belongs to the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM).
All the eight BJP MLAs stayed away from the oath-taking ceremony that began on Saturday, alleging that the Congress government had begun appeasing the MIM from day one itself. Controversial MLA T. Raja Singh, who was elected from Goshamahal constituency in Hyderabad, said the BJP would never take the oath if Mr. Owaisi was in the Chair as he was not only ineligible but also had abused Hindu gods earlier. Mr. Singh made this clear a day before the sessions and the remaining seven MLAs too followed suit.
Earlier, in the day six-time MLA from Chandrayangutta Akbaruddin Owaisi was appointed the Pro-tem Speaker for the first session of the third Telangana Assembly by the Government. Officials said he was appointed on the advice of the Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and his name was sent to Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, who administered the oath to him at Raj Bhavan paving way for the oath taking ceremony of the MLAs at the Assembly.
The BJP contended that Mr. Owaisi was not the senior-most and it was objecting to his appointment as it was against the established norms. There were many seniors to Mr. Owaisi and his appointment was a ‘violation of rules’ was their argument.
At a breakfast meeting conducted in the morning by BJP State chief G. Kishan Reddy the MLAs collectively decided not to take oath. Mr. Reddy charged that Congress had succumbed to the pressures of the MIM within three days of taking charge. With a wafer-thin majority and in danger of collapsing any time, the Congress party has decided to throw away all the legislative procedures to the wind and appease the MIM party, he charged. “This only proved our charge that Congress and MIM had a tacit understanding during the elections,” he claimed. “Why Mr. Owaisi when several senior politicians were elected as MLAs this time.”
The BJP later wrote a letter to Governor Soundararajan requesting her to set aside the nomination of Mr. Owaisi. The letter read: “The TS-BJP requests you to set aside the nomination of Sri Akbaruddin Owaisi as Pro-tem Speaker as it constitutes a violation of norms and instructs appointment of the senior-most member. The TS-BJP also requests you to instruct the officials concerned to withhold the process of election of a new full-time Speaker for the newly constituted Assembly pending nomination of a senior-most member as Speaker. The TS-BJP, otherwise, will be compelled to refrain from taking oath in front of a person who is appointed against the norms.”
The party has now decided to take oath only after the Speaker was elected for the new Assembly. The Congress party has named former Minister and Dalit leader Prasad Kumar as the Speaker nominee and in all likelihood he would be elected Speaker of the Telangana Assembly.
This is not the first time the BJP has raked up this issue. Mr. Raja Singh adopted the same policy of not accepting the MIM party with ‘Razakar Legacy’ in 2018 too when he was the lone BJP MLA in the Assembly. In the last Assembly in 2018, Majlis Party MLA Mumtaz Khan was chosen as the Pro-tem Speaker.
