Pocharam comes under BJP fire

Hyderabad: Several State BJP leaders on Wednesday targeted the Telangana Assembly Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy for his alleged political criticism and demanded action against him.

Party president Bandi Sanjay Kumar said the Speaker should play the role of an elder brother in the Assembly. He alleged Reddy was acting as a puppet in the hands of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, instead of properly conducting the House. He claimed that the Speaker took action against the party MLAs when they questioned the latter's partisan attitude. Bandi asked as to how the Speaker could criticise the party members politically? He said a discussion should be held on the Speaker's political criticism in the House.

Huzurabad MLA Eatala Rajender said the Speaker was like a father to him. "Politics may be a different thing; but I have respect for him. He has vast experience. You are making a sober and righteous Speaker to act as per your directions. I am not insulting the Speaker but you are insulting him. You are lowering the stature of the Speaker. You should apologise, not me," said Eatala, referring to the CM

Meanwhile, Dubbak MLA M Raghunandan Rao came to the Assembly at 5 pm on Wednesday, as per the challenge he had thrown to Legislative Affairs Minister V Prashanth Reddy, who had reportedly warned of suspension of BJP legislators for criticising the Speaker.

During the day, while addressing a press conference, Rao said the Legislative Affairs Minister should come for a discussion on how many MLAs are required for a party to be called for the BAC meeting. He asked whether word 'maid' is banned as the minister was speaking about issuing notice to Eatala.

He said there should be equal respect for all members in the House; there should be no discrimination against the BJP leaders. The BJP MLA had challenged the minister for an open debate at Media Point, but had to return without a discussion.