Hyderabad: The Telangana Assembly Speaker on Tuesday disqualified two senior Congress legislators due to their unruly behaviour during Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan's address at the joint session the previous day.
Speaker Madhusudhana Chary announced the disqualification of Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and S.A. Sampath Kumar. They stand expelled from the House for the rest of the period of the current Assembly which is the first since Telangana became a separate state in 2014 and the term will last till April-May next year.
Eleven Congress members including floor leader K. Jana Reddy, were also placed under suspension for the current budget session that began on Monday.
Venkat Reddy was seen throwing headphones at the Governor when he was addressing the joint session on Monday. The headphone hit Council Speaker Swamy Goud which led to an eye injury.
While the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) fully supported the action against the Congress members, the Bharatiya Janata Party floor leader G. Kishen Reddy objected to the suspension of some members like K. Jana Reddy.
Legislative Affairs Minister T. Harish Rao moved the motion for disqualification of the two Congress members under provisions of clause 3 of Article 194.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and MIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi strongly condemned the Congress members' behaviour in the Assembly.
BJP floor leader G. Kishan Reddy felt the Speaker should have consulted all parties before moving the motion for suspending the 11 members.
In the Legislative Council, six Congress members -- Shabbir Ali, Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy, Akula Lalitha, Damodar Reddy, P Sudhakar Reddy and Santosh -- were suspended for the current session.