Hyderabad: The state assembly speaker S Madhusudana Chary's decision to re-allot TDP Legislature Party offices to the ruling TRS party has given a cause for the opposition parties to come together and fight for their rights.
The principal opposition party Congress is taking the initiative to unite opposition parties against the alleged undemocratic attitude of the ruling party. The Telangana Congress president N Uttam Kumar Reddy said leaders of the opposition parties would meet in a couple days to discuss these issues.
"As a first step, the Congress will a write letter to the speaker appealing to him to protect democratic values. Then, we will write to other parties calling upon them to join hands to put a united fight to protect our rights," he said.
He said he was consulting the leaders of opposition in the assembly and council, K Jana Reddy and Mohammed Ali Shabbir respectively, on the party's plans to bring the opposition parties together. He said he was planning to write to the speaker on Tuesday. While there are several issues including a spate of defections, the latest trigger for the opposition action is the speaker's move to reallocate TDP's office spaces on assembly premises, room No. 107 and room No. 110 to Rekha Naik, chairperson legislature committee on women welfare, and Shakeel Ahmed, chairman of legislature committee on minority affairs on Monday.
Expressing his party's willingness join the fight, BJP floor leader in the assembly, G Kishan Reddy, said it was the need of the hour to question the ruling party's autocratic approach. He said the speaker had to inform the TDP before taking back its office spaces. BJP president K Laxman said he too would write to the speaker to express his party's concerns over his unilateral decision to re-allot office spaces.
Senior TDP leader Ravula Chandrasekhar Reddy said, "When a petition filed against the merger of our MLAs with the TRS is pending in the court, how can they take back our office spaces? It is time for the opposition parties come together and put up a united fight."
Beginning with 15 MLAs, the TDP's strength was reduced to three with 12 of its legislators defecting to the TRS and and later the group was merged with the ruling party.
The speaker's decision to re-allot office spaces, the opposition parties said, was apparently based on the reduced strength of the TDP, while the rule says a political party must have at least five MLAs to be eligible for an office on the assembly premises. The opposition parties, however, are arguing that the rule was based on the original strength of the assembly in the undivided Andhra Pradesh, which had 294 members. They demand that the rule be amended as the current Telagnana assembly has only 119 members.