The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has alleged that the Congress, which has come to power in the name of “democratic Telangana”, is keeping all systems in the State under its control, including that of the Assembly Speaker’s office.
“It is evident that the Speaker is not giving them an appointment to meet him in spite of repeated requests, though the Speaker is expected to be unbiased at least in this basic aspect, BRS MLAs K.P. Vivekanand, Padi Kaushik Reddy and Kova Laxmi and former MLAs A. Jeevan Reddy and P. Shashidhar Reddy.
Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, they said that the Congress government, particularly Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, was acting against what they had spoken before coming to the power.
The BRS leaders stated that they had been trying to meet the Speaker for the last few weeks to petition him against the defection of party MLAs Kadiyam Srihari and Tellam Venkat Rao seeking their disqualification.
But, as the Speaker did not give them an appointment even after repeated attempts, they had sent the petitions to the Speaker’s office in a registered post. There is no other option for the Speaker but to disqualify Danam Nagender, Kadiyam Srihari and Tellam Venkat Rao as their action was attracting the provisions of the Anti-Defection Law, they said.
They pointed out that the Congress Speaker in Himachal Pradesh had disqualified the MLAs who had defected to the BJP, and now, it was the turn of the Telangana Speaker to emulate his Himachal Pradesh counterpart.
BRS would go to any extent possible legally on the issue in case the Speaker failed to act upon their petitions. They would stage protests in front of the Assembly and also knock the doors of courts.
Ridiculing the Congress manifesto, which proposes to amend the Constitution for automatic disqualification of MLAs/MPs elected on one party ticket defecting to another party, they said that AICC leader Rahul Gandhi was preaching morals but Mr. Revanth Reddy was digging graves.
They also criticised the Legislature Secretary for not being available to the BRS leaders for submitting their petitions against the defected MLAs.
