HYDERABAD: Describing the High Court judgment as a victory of democracy, Congress MLAs Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and SA Sampath Kumar have demanded that chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao resign from his post, accepting responsibility for the "undemocratic decision" taken by his government to expel them from the State Assembly.
"The High Court judgment is a slap on the face of the TRS government which is adopting undemocratic methods to suppress the voice of opposition parties in the state. We were unjustly expelled from the House during the recent budget session as we were questioning the misdeeds of the government. Now, the court has delivered justice to us," Venkat Reddy and Sampath Kumar told mediapersons separately on Tuesday.
Later, while taking part in the Congress' Praja Chaitanya Bus Yatra at Manuguru in Khammam district, Venkat Reddy took potshots at the chief minister.
TPCC chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy, who was leading the Yatra, said, "We welcome the court's verdict. KCR's downfall has begun. "The government failed to submit Assembly video footage to the court to prove its claim that the headphones hurled by Komatireddy had hit an eye of the Council chairman. "With the resignation of the advocate-general, our claim was established," he added.
Leader of Opposition K Jana Reddy said in Hyderabad that they had been saying from the beginning that the government was adopting dictatorial methods against the opposition in the House.
Former minister D K Aruna wanted KCR to ask all the defectors to quit the Assembly. "The court's verdict is a slap on the face of the government," she said.
Leader of opposition in the Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir said both CM and speaker should resign." "The court has exposed the true colours of the speaker," he remarked.
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Congress leaders and cadres celebrated the court verdict by bursting fire-crackers at the party's state headquarters in the city, party offices in districts and also during the Parja Chaitanya Bus Yatra at Manuguru in Khammam district on Tuesday. Party leaders distributed sweets, saying that justice was delivered in the case.