The newly-elected BJP MLAs in Telangana Assembly on Saturday stayed away from State Assembly on the first day, protesting appointment of AIMIM MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi as the protem Speaker.
All eight MLAs of the saffron party boycotted the proceedings after a decision taken by state BJP president G. Kishan Reddy.
Kishan Reddy told media persons at BJP office that the Congress government appointed Akbaruddin Owaisi as protem Speaker under a secret deal with the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM).
He said that since Congress has a narrow majority in the Assembly and the government may collapse any time, it joined hands with AIMIM.
However, Kishan Reddy, who is also a union minister, claimed that Owaisi is not the senior most MLA.
The BJP also complained to Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan about his appointment.
T. Raja Singh was the first BJP MLA who had refused to take oath before Akbaruddin Owaisi.
In the previous Assembly too, he had refused to take oath before AIMIM’s Mumtaz Ahmed Khan, who had served as protem Speaker.
All eight BJP MLAs had gathered at the BJP office in the morning. Kishan Reddy felicitated them. Protesting against the decision of the party MLAs to attend the House, Raja Singh left the party office in a huff. He did not accompany them during their visit to the temple at historic Charminar.
The BJP MLAs also paid tributes to Dr B. R. Ambedkar at the statue at Tank Bund and were reportedly planning to proceed to the Assembly.
However, they dropped their plan on a direction from the party’s central leadership.
Following this, Kishan Reddy announced at a news conference that party MLAs will not take oath before Akbaruddin Owaisi. He said the party MLAs will take oath after a regular Speaker is elected.