Five Andhra legislators suspended for ruckus in assembly

HYDERABAD - Five legislators of the Andhra Pradesh assembly were Friday suspended for a week for unruly behaviour during Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan’s address to the joint session of both houses Thursday.

Deputy Speaker Nadendla Manohar announced suspension of three legislators of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and two of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) after Legislative Affairs Minister D. Sridhar Babu moved a resolution.

Pandemonium prevailed in the house as the suspended members refused to leave the house as directed by the deputy speaker. He then adjourned the house to Monday.

The suspension of TRS legislators Harish Rao, K. Sammaiah and Vidyasgar and TDP’s Revant Reddy and Mahinder Reddy was announced after the house condemned Thursday’s incidents on the first day of the budget session.

The house had witnessed unprecedented chaos Thursday as the TRS and TDP legislators from Telangana created ruckus, heckled the governor and rushed menacingly towards him.

Branding the governor “anti-Telangana”, they uprooted the mikes, snatched papers from the governor’s hands, tore copies of his speech and threw them at him, pulled away the lectern and pulled down chairs of the governor, deputy speaker and council chairman.

Narasimhan cut short his speech as his guards and assembly marshals threw a cordon around him and bodily lifted some legislators out of the house.

Reacting sharply to the suspension, both TRS and TDP legislators demanded that the governor should be recalled.

TRS leader Harish Rao, nephew of party chief K. Chandrasekhara Rao, alleged that the governor used unparliamentary words and demanded that the deputy speaker take action.

TDP legislator Revant Reddy alleged that they were suspended at the governor’s behest. Alleging that the governor had colluded with leaders of Andhra and Rayalaseema regions, he sought the governor’s resignation.

“He should resign and if he fails to do so, the centre should dismiss him,” he said, and declared that his party would not allow Narasimhan to visit any part of Telangana.

Earlier, the assembly was adjourned twice as TRS stalled the proceedings demanding the house to pass a resolution urging the central government table a bill in parliament for formation of separate Telangana state.

Government chief whip Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka moved a privilege notice against the members involved in Thursday’s incidents in the house. He said it was a black day in the history of state legislature.

TRS leader Harish Rao said his party would also move a privilege notice against the government for what he called the selective leakage of video footage of Thursday’s incidents in the house.

Journalists of some television channels launched a sit-in in the assembly premises protesting release of visuals to only a few channels.