HYDERABAD: BRS MLAs on Wednesday staged a walkout from the Telangana Assembly over the alleged derogatory comments of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy against Leader of the Opposition and their party chief, K Chandrasekhar Rao.
Trouble began when the chief minister took objection to the suggestion given by BRS MLA Kadiyam Srihari that the state government should immediately take up restoration works and construct a cofferdam at the Medigadda barrage before the onset of monsoon to protect the interests of farmers.
Intervening in a debate on the vote-on-account Budget, the CM said: “The previous BRS government is responsible for the damage caused to the Medigadda barrage and Chandrasekhar Rao should have come to the Assembly when the issue was being discussed. Instead, he participated in a public meeting in Nalgonda and abused me. Now, you are talking about my language. How about the way your leader speaks? Are you ready for a debate on the kind of language that Chandrasekhar Rao uses? Is this the Telangana culture?” he asked.
Continuing his verbal attack on the BRS chief, Revanth Reddy said that people pulled down KCR’s trousers during the recent Assembly polls. ‘”We will take off his shirt too. Even after your defeat in the elections, you have not changed your ways,” he said.
‘Who wants to kill a dead snake’
Referring to KCR daring Congress leaders to kill him, Revanth said: “Who wants to kill a dead snake. The people have already killed it.”
He lashed out at KCR for shying away from the Assembly and not participating in the debate on matters of public importance. “The state government is ready for any discussions in the House with facts and figures relating to irrigation projects. But KCR is skipping the Assembly and resting in the farmhouse,” Revanth said.
The CM offered control of the Medigadda reservoir to the BRS leaders to fill it with water if the damage done to the piers is not serious. He said the Rs 94,000 crore KLIS has now been rendered useless. During the discussion, Srihari made serious allegations against Congress member Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy, calling him a cheedapurugu (pest) for harming the Congress which helped him grow as a leader.
This led to a war of words between Rajgopal and Srihari. Rajgopal slammed Srihari for preventing his rival T Rajaiah from getting a party ticket. “You cannot become a minister in your life,” he said and asked him to stop talking about whether he would get a ministerial berth.
He asked Srihari to keep out of the Congress affairs. “It is the prerogative of the party leadership and the chief minister to decide who should be in the Cabinet and who should not. Don’t let Srihari make any comments on me and the Congress,” he said.
KTR urges Speaker to expunge Rajagopal’s remarks
BRS working president KT Rama Rao urged the Speaker to expunge the remarks made against Srihari by Rajgopal.
It was improper on the part of the Congress MLA to make such a remark against a Dalit leader, he said. He also found fault with the Speaker for not giving mikes to the Opposition members and allowing the ruling party MLAs to have access to them. ‘’You should treat all the members equally,’’ he said.
Rama Rao appealed to the government to repair the damaged portion of Medigadda and not to punish the farmers and earn their wrath. “If you are angry with KCR for political reasons, you can continue to target him. Do not do injustice to the farmer,” he remarked.