After their boycott of Protem Speaker Akbaruddin Owaisi, BJP MLAs take oath

Hyderabad: In the Telangana Assembly, the recently elected BJP MLAs refused to take an oath before Protem Speaker Akbaruddin Owaisi and instead took it before Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar on Thursday.

The BJP MLAs appeared in the House and took an oath of office shortly after Prasad Kumar was unanimously elected to be the next Speaker.

All eight MLAs of the saffron party had boycotted the proceedings on December 9 to protest the appointment of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) MLA Owaisi as the Protem Speaker.

The saffron party had alleged that Owaisi was appointed Protem Speaker in violation of rules as there were other members who were senior to him.

The BJP had complained to Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan about his appointment and alleged in a memorandum that the Congress government in the state wilfully violated norms to pander to certain sections of the people in pursuit of appeasement politics.

It had urged the Governor to set aside the nomination of Owaisi as Protem Speaker and 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.

When the Assembly met for the day on Thursday, Owaisi started the proceedings.

The MLAs who could not take oath on December 9 were called to complete the formalities.

Minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, Uttam Kumar Reddy, BRS MLAs Kadiam Srihari, K. T. Rama Rao, P. Kaushik Reddy, K. Prabhakar Reddy, T. Padma Rao and P. Rajeshwar Reddy took the oath.

Though the names of BJP MLAs were announced, they did not turn up.

Only after Prasad Kumar was elected Speaker and assumed the chair, did BJP MLAs attend the House and take oath.

Two BJP MLAs Ramarao Pawar and T. Raja Singh took oath in Hindi while the others took oath in Telugu.

With inputs from IANS