Andhra Pradesh Assembly budget session: TDP\'s noisy protest mars Governor\'s address

Amaravati: The Budget session of the Andhra Pradesh Legislature got off to a noisy start here on Monday as the opposition Telugu Desam Party members raised slogans and disrupted Governor Biswa Bhusan Harichandan's customary address to the joint sitting of the two Houses.

Storming into the Well of the House, the TDP legislators tore the Governor's speech copies and flung them in the air, but Harichandan went ahead with his address.

The TDP members raised slogans “Governor Go Back”, alleging that he failed to safeguard the constitutional institutions.

Midway through the Governor's address, however, the TDP members staged a walk-out in protest.

The principal opposition members later tried to squat in the Assembly lobbies but the House Marshals objected to it, leading to an argument. But the TDP members prevailed and sat on a protest in the lobbies, raising slogans against the Governor.

At the end of his hour-long address, the Governor was safely escorted out of the legislature building after the Marshals ensured that the protesting TDP members did not cross the security cordon.

This was the Governor's first physical address to the joint sitting of the AP Legislative Council and the Legislative Assembly. In the previous two years, owing to COVID-19 outbreak, he completed the formality in virtual mode through a video link.