Andhra Assembly debate: Speaker suspends YSRCP members

The House had to be adjourned twice this morning as the YSRC members refused to cooperate

Speaker of the Andhra Pradesh state Legislative Assembly, N Manohar, on Thursday suspended YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) legislators from the House for a day as they disrupted the proceedings demanding voting  or adopting a resolution against the bifurcation of the state before taking up any discussion on the draft AP Reorganisation Bill.

The YSRCP members continued to raise slogans even after the Speaker allowed their Legislature party leader YS VIjayalakshmi to explain their stand as to why they have been opposing a debate on the Bill. Following this, they were suspended from the House for a day. On the other hand, the members of Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the main opposition party, favoured the debate on the Bill much to the comfort of the treasury benches.

According to political observers, the YSRCP strategically forced the Speaker and the government to get them suspended from the House in a bid to stand out in the eyes of people of coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions as the lone fighters of the cause of the united Andhra Pradesh. These MLAs were later arrested by the police when they staged a protest at a busy junction in front of the Assembly building.

Thereafter, the treasury benches began the debate by arguing against the state bifurcation through one of its ministers from the Seemandhra region. State tourism minister Vatti Vasantha Kumar argued that the residual state of Andhra Pradesh will be left out as a mere agrarian region following the division of the state because all the industrial and institutional base will be a part of Telangana. He said the whole exercise of bifurcation was completely biased in favour of Telangana.

Government chief Whip Gandra Venkata Ramana Reddy, who hails from the Telangana region, defended the state bifurcation stating that the AP Reorganisation Bill reflected the democratic aspirations of the people of Telangana. He said the Congress party in 2004 and the opposition TDP in 2009 had incorporated Telangana state in their respective election manifestos.

Intermittently, the House witnessed loud exchange of arguments among members of the Congress, TDP and TRS who accused each other of playing a double game on the issue of bifurcation.