In a rarest of rare incidents in the history of Andhra Pradesh assembly, TDP president and leader of opposition N Chandrababu Naidu on Monday squatted on the floor of the assembly near the Speaker’s podium, on the first day of the winter session of the assembly.
Naidu was protesting against the alleged highhanded behaviour of the ruling YSR Congress party for not giving the opposition to raise the voice over the failure of the government in addressing the people’s problems due to Cyclone Nivar.
As a result, Speaker Tammineni Sitararam was forced to suspend Naidu and 12 other TDP members from the House for a day. Suspension of the leader of the opposition from assembly is also very rare in the state legislature history.
Naidu was trying to raise his voice on the recent rains caused by Cyclone Nirav and the losses suffered by farmers. This was after chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy giving a reply to TDP member Nimmala Rama Naidu’s questions. Yet, Naidu wanted to speak on the issue, for which the YSRC members opposed.
They wondered how Naidu could speak on the same issue, which was already raised by his own party leader. The TDP chief leader staged a protest by squatting on the floor of the House, following which the TDP members were suspended.
The YSRC charged the opposition members with stalling the business out of frustration. Several ministers including agriculture minister K Kanna Babu strongly condemned Naidu’s rude behaviour.
Jagan Reddy said the TDP was resorting to rowdyism in the assembly and Naidu was behaving irresponsibly and without brain, despite growing old.
Later, Naidu and the TDP MLAs staged a protest outside the assembly against passing of the Panchayati Raj law amendment bill without discussion.
