HYDERABAD: The Legislative Assembly witnessed heated exchanges between the treasury and opposition benches after Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy introduced a discussion on the Centre’s indifferent attitude in allocating funds to Telangana in the Union Budget.
During the discussion, BRS MLA KT Rama Rao said that the House was not provided with the copies of the resolution for him to respond.
Responding to Rama Rao, the chief minister said that he had just introduced the discussion and not moved the resolution, and claimed the BRS MLA was not paying attention to the proceedings.
“I thought he [KTR] came in under the management quota, but I now understand that he is also an absentee landlord,” Revanth quipped.
Asking if the BRS will support the government on passing the resolution against the Union Budget, he said: “What’s your stand on this? Will it be like the discussions you had while going around the residences [of BJP leaders] in the dark. Or any other opinion in the House?”
In response, Rama Rao said: “You [CM] have clinched the post under payment quota. And I don’t know whether the CM was referring to Rajiv Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi when he talked about nepotism.”
His remarks attracted a sharp reaction from the treasury benches with Legislative Affairs Minister D Sridhar Babu requesting Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar to expunge objectionable words.
8+8 is a big zero for Telangana: BRS leader
While extending 100 per cent support to the state government’s resolution on the Union Budget 2024, Rama Rao said that the state got nothing because of the absence of the BRS in Lok Sabha. Referring to the presence of a number of Congress and BJP MPs from Telangana in Lok Sabha, he said: “Eight plus eight equalled zero for Telangana.”
He also said that former CM K Chandrasekhar Rao was wrongly accused of not maintaining cordial relations with the Centre, and now the Congress got to know the facts as it is in power. Reacting to this, Revanth said that the “BRS always supported the BJP government” whenever the latter required it.
He said that the BRS supported the BJP-led Central government on the GST Bill, RTI (Amendment) Bill 2019, demonetisation, abrogation of Article 317, Inter-State River Water Disputes (Amendment) Bill, Triple Talaq Bill, and election of vice-president. The CM said he has witnessed BRS MPs supporting the BJP in Lok Sabha.
The chief minister also said that when the Opposition moved a no-confidence motion against the Narendra Modi government, the BRS indirectly supported the BJP by staging a walkout.
