Telangana: 14 Cong MLAs suspended for disrupting Assembly

Fourteen MLAs of the main opposition Congress were today suspended from Telangana Assembly for a day as they stalled proceedings over the defections issue that rocked the House for the second consecutive day.

The Congress said the Telangana Rashtra Samiti government has lost the right to continue in office and castigated Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao for brazenly encouraging defections, in total violation of the Anti Defection Law and the Constitution.

Several Congress and Telugu Desam Party legislators have defected to the ruling TRS in the last few days.

The Congress moved an adjournment motion on the issue today also and pressed for a discussion "to enlighten people" about the violation of anti-defection law and also the Constitution.

The ruling side claimed the matter was pending before the Speaker and, as per Supreme Court judgement, could not be discussed in the House.

Leader of Opposition K Jana Reddy refuted this and asserted the matter was not sub-judice.

"We know the issue is pending with the Speaker. We want him to take a quick decision on this (disqualifying the members who defected to the ruling party)," Jana Reddy said.

"We lose nothing if one of our members switches sides. Let four others also go...we don't lose anything," the veteran leader remarked.

"We promised to extend all support to the government to develop the state into a golden Telangana. But the manner in which it is encouraging defections is undemocratic and unconstitutional. This government has lost the right to continue in office," the Leader of Opposition said.

"It is for the people to decide whether the government should continue or not," Finance Minister Etela Rajender countered.

As the Congress members pressed for a discussion on the defections issue, Speaker S Madhusudanachari adjourned the proceedings twice for 10 minutes each.

Since the Congress members remained on their feet and raised slogans like "We want justice" when the House resumed, the Speaker suspended them for a day.