BRS Holds Mock Assembly at Telangana Bhavan After 22 MLAs Get Suspended

<p>Members of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) staged a mock assembly session at Telangana Bhavan in Hyderabad on Saturday, September 12, days after 22 of the party's MLAs, including working president KT Rama Rao, were suspended from the Telangana Assembly for the remainder of the monsoon session.</p>
<p>Former minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav played the role of Chief Minister during the mock session and took sharp digs at Revanth Reddy over the removal of former minister Konda Surekha from the cabinet. At the mock assembly, Zaheerabad MLA Manik Rao occupied the Speaker's chair, while BRS legislators re-enacted assembly proceedings, holding placards on public issues they said the ruling Congress was avoiding discussion on in the House, according to Namasthe Telangana.</p>
<p>Playing the Chief Minister, Talasani said: "Since Konda Surekha's child spoke about me, I went to Delhi, stayed three days, crushed her and came back. What could I do, a Backward Class (BC) son who became Chief Minister, other than sack her from the cabinet?" The remarks were an apparent reference to Surekha's removal from the Telangana cabinet earlier this month, after Governor Shiv Pratap Shukla accepted Revanth Reddy's recommendation to drop her.</p>
<p>Talasani also took aim at the Congress government's 100-day guarantee promises, saying: "We said we would implement the guarantees in 100 days, but did we ever specify which 100 days? We have our own troubles with the people in Delhi."</p>
<p>The BRS MLAs were suspended on September 9 after they entered the Well of the House shouting "we want justice" slogans. They were demanding a debate on the alleged high-handedness of police against the party's women legislators, and on remarks by Congress MLA Veerlapally Shankar that BRS leaders wished ill health on party chief K Chandrasekhar Rao. The Congress denied endorsing any such remarks.</p>
<p>Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar suspended the members after Legislative Affairs Minister D Sridhar Babu moved a motion for their suspension. The BRS legislators had refused to return to their seats despite repeated appeals from the Speaker, Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and Sridhar Babu.</p>
<p>Separately, two BRS MLCs, Tata Madhusudan and Naveen Kumar Reddy, were arrested on September 8 and suspended from the Legislative Council over alleged derogatory remarks against the Speaker. The party later said it had apologised for those remarks.</p>