Andhra Assembly speaker suspends 5 TDP MLAs for day amid uproarious scenes

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Andhra Pradesh Assembly speaker Tammineni Sitaram on Friday suspended two Telugu Desam Party MLAs for the remainder of the legislative session and three other MLAs of the party for the day, amid uproarious scenes in the House.

While MLAs K Atchannaidu and B Ashok were suspended for the entire session of the assembly, Nimmala Ramanaidu, Butchaiah Chowdary, and V Ramakrishna were suspended for the day.

A total of 15 MLAs from the opposition were suspended on Thursday by the Speaker for a similar disorderly display of conduct.

Earlier today TDP members created a ruckus and rushed into the well of the House as they continued for the second day their protest against the arrest of TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu in connection with an alleged skill development scam.

Some members hurled torn papers while one member brought a whistle and blew on it in the assembly despite the Speaker's repeated urging to maintain decorum. MLAs Balakrishna and Velagapudi Ramakrishna, seated in their chairs, contributed to the chaos by loud whistles.

The Speaker sent marshals to retrieve the whistles from TDP members who were causing a commotion in the assembly and the situation was worsened by the exhibition of inappropriate conduct by Balakrishna towards the marshals.

TDP MLAs were holding a protest for the second consecutive day against the "illegal" arrest of TDP chief with members of the party expressing their concerns over a "conspiracy" to kill the TDP chief.

Visuals from outside the Assembly showed TDP MLAs and workers protesting and raising slogans of 'We Want Justice'.

Former YSRCP MLA Undavalli Sridevi also joined the protest and said that the procedure to arrest Chandrababu Naidu was not correct and that he is being supressed mentally as well as physically in prison.

"...The procedure of arrest was not correct and we are going to protest against it...Chandrababu Naidu has been illegally arrested and kept in Rajahmundry Central jail. We came to know that a person (in the same jail) died of dengue fever which is a severe disease as it causes internal bleeding and the patient can go into comma...." said Undavalli Sridevi.

Speaking to ANI, Sridevi said although they were concerned about the health of Naidu even though prison authorities have stated there was no mosquito breeding in the jail.

"We are asking for the immediate release of Chandrababu Naidu as we are worried about his health," she said.

On Tuesday, an undertrial prisoner at the Rajahmundry Central Prison died due to dengue while undergoing treatment at the Kakinada government hospital.

TDP general Secretary Nara Lokesh in a social media post on X on Thursday alleged a "conspiracy" was hatched to eliminate Chandrababu Naidu in prison.

Lokesh in his tweet said that Naidu was lodged in jail by implicating him in a false case and that Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy would be held responsible if anything happened to Naidu inside the jail. Nara Lokesh further posted that he suspected that a plan was being implemented by exposing Naidu to mosquitos so that the TDP supremo would also get vector-borne diseases like dengue.

Naidu was arrested on September 9 in connection with the Andhra Pradesh Skill Development scam case.