Hyderabad, Sep 7 (IANS): Telangana BJP chief Bandi Sanjay on Wednesday demanded action against Assembly Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy for making political comments while holding a Constitutional position.
Sanjay, who is also a Member of Parliament, stated that there should be a debate in the Assembly on the conduct of the Speaker, who criticized union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman during her recent visit to the state.
He alleged that there was a conspiracy to see that people's issues don't come up for debate in the House by not allowing BJP members to attend the session. He criticized the Speaker for not inviting the BJP to the meeting of the Business Advisory Committee (BAC).
Addressing the newly elected convenors and joint convenors for Parliamentary constituencies and district in-charges at the party office here, he alleged that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao was scared of the BJP. He said the BJP would settle all the issues with the TRS in a public forum.
Meanwhile, BJP MLA Eatala Rajender dared Chief Minister KCR to allow him to attend the Assembly. He said the chief minister should at least announce that he does not want to see him in the Assembly.
Rajender was reacting to reports that the TRS government is planning to suspend him from the Assembly for making certain remarks against the Speaker. He alleged that KCR was continuing his autocratic rule in the state in the garb of democracy.
The former minister said he has not yet received any notice. "Let us see what kind of notice they send. I have not yet received any notice," he said.
Expressing unhappiness over the BJP not being invited to the BAC meeting, Rajender had said on Tuesday that the Speaker should not be a robot in the hands of the chief minister.
Taking strong exception to Rajender's remark, legislative affairs minister Vemula Prashanth Reddy had demanded that he tender an unconditional apology to the Speaker.
Terming the BJP MLA's remark derogatory and an insult to the Assembly, Prashanth Reddy had said if he failed to apologise, action will be initiated against him as per Assembly rules. The minister maintained that it's the Speaker's decision to invite a party to the BAC meeting.
Meanwhile, another BJP MLA Raghunandan Rao has questioned the Speaker's move. He wanted to know how many members a party should have to be invited to the BAC meeting. He recalled that in the past even parties having one member were invited to the meeting.
The BJP MLA challenged Prashanth Reddy to a debate on the issue.
Rao said while the Speaker invited the MIM and the Congress to the BAC meeting, he chose to ignore the BJP, which has three members.
He said if a notice was issued to Rajender, they would legally deal with it. He argued that the word used by Rajender was not unparliamentary.