Telangana BJP MLAs stage protest over suspension

Hyderabad, March 17:  All three BJP MLAs in Telangana staged a protest here on Thursday against what they call refusal of Assembly Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy to honour the orders of the High Court on their suspension from the House.

Wearing black scarves Eatala Rajender, Raja Singh and Raghunandan Rao sat on the protest at Indira Park in the heart of the city.

Large number of party leaders and workers participated in the day-long 'Save democracy protest' amid tight security by the police.

The MLAs alleged that they were suspended at the instance of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and though the High Court had suggested the Speaker to reconsider their suspension, he did not honour the suggestion of the court.

The police had initially denied permission for the protest but later granted the same after BJP leaders moved the High Court.

Raghunandan Rao said only BJP can restore democracy in the state.

He said with the permission of the party leadership they planned to organise similar protests in all districts.

He said they were suspended for questioning the government's move to do away with the governor's address on the first day of the budget session.

Rajender alleged that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao spent hundreds of crores to defeat him in Huzurabad by-election. He said after failing in this attempt, KCR got him suspended from Assembly along with other BJP MLAs to muzzle the voice of the opposition.

He said they would take the issue to people's court which will ultimately take a decision to save democracy.

BJP MLAs had called on Speaker on March 15, a day after the High Court asked them to meet him.

They had informed him about the observations made by the court while hearing their petition challenging the suspension.

March 15 was the last day of the budget session of the State Assembly. The session had commenced on March 7 and on the very first day all three MLAs of BJP were suspended for disrupting the proceedings.

Protesting over the government's move to commence the budget session without the Governor's address, the BJP legislators tried to disrupt the proceedings.

On a resolution moved by the government, the Speaker announced their suspension for the entire session.

The MLAs had approached the high court challenging their suspension. They argued that their suspension was against the rules of the Legislative Assembly and the Constitution of India.

After a single judge refused to stay the suspension, the legislators filed an appeal before a division bench.

A bench of Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice A. Venkateswar Reddy on March 14 left the decision to the Speaker. The court hoped that the Speaker will take an appropriate decision to uphold democratic principles in line with the impartial role of his office in the House.