Speaker Thammineni Seetharam loses cool at Naidu’s threatening gesture

VIJAYAWADA: State Legislative Assembly Speaker Thammineni Seetharam on Tuesday lost his cool in the State Legislative Assembly. He went on to warn Leader of Opposition N. Chandrababu Naidu to be careful when the latter made a threatening gesture pointing a finger at the Speaker and even flung papers towards the podium.

The assembly was holding a discussion on housing schemes in the state when the Speaker allowed municipal administration minister Botsa Satyanarayana and housing minister Ch. Sri Ranganatha Raju to make statements. Thammineni Seetharam also allowed some ruling party legislators to speak on the subject.

At this stage, the Leader of Opposition asked the Speaker to give him time to speak and continued insisting for the mike. When Seetharam asked Naidu to wait for his turn, the latter raised his hand with his finger pointed at the Speaker and threw papers in his hand targeting the Speaker.

The Speaker turned furious over this. He said, “Be careful. So what if you are Leader of Opposition? You should behave properly. I had asked you to wait until I give you the time to speak. I did not say that I will not give you the time to speak.”

Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy condemned such behaviour of Naidu. He advised the latter to learn how to behave properly in the assembly. Subsequently, several YSR Congress legislators demanded that Naidu apologise to the Speaker.

At this, Speaker said he left it to the discretion of Naidu whether or not he apologised.