All Opposition members suspended from AP Assembly

All the members of five major opposition parties - Telugu Desam Party, Telangana Rashtra Samithi, Communist Party of India-Marxist, Communist Party of India and Majlis-e-Ittehaadul Muslimeen - were suspended for two days for stalling the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly on Monday.

The House adopted a motion for the suspension of opposition members - moved by Legislative Affairs Minister K Rosaiah - after the agitated members surrounded the Speaker's podium, raising slogans against the government over the alleged Rs 400-crore scam in the award of contracts for Sripadasagar Stage II project.

Bharatiya Janata Party member G Kishen Reddy and Bahujan Samaj Party member L Raja Rao staged a walk-out while CPI-Marxist-Leninist member Gummadi Narasaiah lodged his protest and sat down. Janata Party and Samajwadi Party members, however, supported the suspension of members from other opposition parties.

The trouble arose as soon as the Assembly sitting began at 8.30 am. CPI-M and CPI members were up in anger when Speaker K R Suresh Reddy announced that he was disallowing the adjournment notices given by them on the Sripadasagar scam issue. TDP, TRS and MIM members, who demanded that the House immediately take
up a discussion on the issue, joined the protesting CPI-M and CPI members.

As the House witnessed unruly scenes with the members rushing into the well of the House and raising slogans against the 'corrupt Congress government', the Speaker adjourned the House. He convened a meeting with the floor leaders in his chambers to discuss the issue.

However, when the House re-assembled, the opposition members demanded that the government place all files pertaining to the award of contract for Sripadasagar project before the Speaker for perusal by all the floor leaders. The Speaker said that he had referred the evidence submitted by the TDP to the government and would discuss the issue again with the Opposition after he received the government's replies in writing.

Not satisfied with the Speaker's assurance, the agitated members again rushed into the well of the House and surrounded the podium, raising loud slogans.

At this stage, the Legislative Affairs Minister moved the motion for the suspension of 55 opposition members, including 27 from TDP, 12 from TRS, 11 from left parties and five from MIM.  

Incidentally, the suspended members included the floor leaders of TRS, CPI-M, CPI and MIM. However, Leader of the Opposition N Chandrababu Naidu, was not suspended.

Later, after the suspended members were escorted out of the House by marshals, Chief Minister Dr Y S Rajasekhar Reddy said that the government had nothing to hide and he was ready to place a statement on the issue in the House within two or three days. "We are ready to have a full-fledged debate on the issue so that the people of the state can know that there is no irregularity in the award of tenders for Sripadasagar project," he added.

The Speaker said, "The request will be examined and I will come back to the House on that."

The House later took up a discussion on effective implementation of National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme in the state.