First Telangana Assembly starts minus many bigwigs

Hyderabad: The historic first Assembly session in the new Telangana began on Monday with enthusiasm among the ruling TRS MLAs but the usual buzz was glaringly missing due to absence of political heavyweights and with the august house limited to just 119 MLAs.

After a gap of 14 years,  K. Chandrasekhar Rao entered the Assembly, as chief minister, and occupied his office after performing a puja. He was among the 119 newly elected MLAs who took oath.
TRS MLAs Gangula Kamalakar, Sathyanarayana, Rasamayi Balakrishan, Chinta Prabhakar, Jupally Krishna Rao, Laxma Reddy and scores of others with pink khandwas offered floral tributes at the Martyrs Memorial at Gun Park and entered the Assembly.

For a change, there were no “Jai Telangana” slogans but only handshakes and hugs.

Finance minister, Mr Etela Rajender, irrigation minister, T. Harish Rao, IT minister K.T Rama Rao, and others too donned pink khandwas and greeted everyone. The Legislature department presented bags containing Assembly books and CDs to the new MLAs.

The combined Andhra Pradesh Assembly had 294 MLAs besides one nominated MLA from the Anglo-Indian community, but with the state divided, Telangana now has 119 MLAs and Andhra Pradesh 175. Thus the sprawling Assembly, which has gone to Telangana, looked deserted on Monday.

There were 119 MLAs – about 40 per cent of the old Assembly – few ministers, few vehicles, few media corps and few staff. The canteen too has shrunk drastically.

There was no hustle bustle at the Assembly tarmac. Inside too, the House looked empty with 175 seats unoccupied. There were no heavyweights like  Chandrababu Naidu (now CM of Andhra Pradesh),  J.C. Diwkar Reddy, Anam brothers and others to liven up the proceedings.

“It’s a memorable day. TRS government will stand by its commitment to the people,” said Mr Etela Rajender.

Senior Congress MLA Ms J. Geetha Reddy said, “I am sure my mother Eshwari Bai will be happy in heaven that her daughter has been elected to the first Telangana Assembly. It’s a great feeling.” BJP state president and Amberpet MLA, G. Kishan Reddy, said that after having achieved Telangana, the focus now should be only on development. “Our party will extend all cooperation to the new government for the development of the new state,” he remarked.

“It looked like a Zilla Parishad meeting. The Assembly aura is missing. Please don’t quote me,” was how a newly elected TD MLA remarked, summing up the new Assembly environment.

It may be mentioned that Chief Minister Mr Chandrasekhar Rao had quit as a TD MLA and deputy Speaker on April 27, 2001, accusing Seemandhra leaders of suppressing the T-people and had floated the TRS.