Ruckus Continues to Rock Telangana Assembly Over CM's Remarks on Women MLAs

Hyderabad: The ruckus between the treasury and opposition benches over Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy’s ‘not to listen to sisters sitting behind’ remarks continued in the Legislative Assembly here on Thursday. Members from the main opposition BRS staged a sit-in on the floor of the house.

In his response, while stating that he respects women, Revanth Reddy cautioned them against falling into the trap of BRS leaders, who don’t care about their own sisters languishing in jail.

The BRS members are trying to derail the debate over skill university and don’t wish to participate in the discussion on the elation of the Madiga and other communities vis-à-vis SC categorisation, Revanth Reddy said.

“Leader of opposition K. Chandrashekar Rao is not attending the House as he doesn’t want to sit before a Madiga speaker and seek a mic to speak,” Revanth Reddy said. Chandrashekar Rao and T. Harish Rao were given posts by the Congress.

“We ran to give the mic to them until 3 am. In contrast I was never allowed to speak. The BRS government deprived Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and Sampath Kumar of their membership of the House,” he said.

However, the business proceedings continued despite the din amid opposition sloganeering.

As the House was to discuss the Young India Skills University (Public-Private Partnership) Act, 2024, BRS members trooped into the well of the house demanding that P. Sabitha Indra Reddy be given a chance to speak. The chair insisted that the members occupy their seats and promised to give them a chance to air their views even as the IT and legislative affairs minister D. Sridhar Babu presented the skill varsity Bill.

When the BJP’s A. Maheshwar Reddy gave his party’s approval to the Bill and found fault with the protests by BRS, members from the main opposition party raised “bade bhai chote bhai” taunts.

At this juncture the visibly peeved AIMIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi urged the chair to either call both parties and discuss the matter in his chambers or suspend them as the government was unable to take a decisive decision. He expressed dismay at being denied an opportunity to speak on the appropriation bill on Wednesday.

Sridhar Babu said that they were not scared of anybody and added that suspension would be the last resort. The lone CPI MLA expressed his sympathies for the BRS women members. Although Sabitha Reddy was taking her party members to their respective seats, Sunitha Laxma Reddy and Kova Lakshmi continued standing and kept asking for the mike.

After extending support to the skills varsity and SC categorisation, Harish Rao sought permission for Sabitha Indra Reddy to speak. When it was denied, the BRS members staged a walkout for the day.