Telangana Minister Defends Cong Over AIMIM Leader's Appointment as Pro-Tem Speaker, Says ‘We Did What…’

Telangana Minister and Congress leader Uttam Kumar Reddy on Saturday defended the appointment of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen’s Akbaruddin Owaisi as a pro-tem Speaker of the state Assembly and stated that the “Congress party did what was the right”.

The minister’s comment came after the BJP MLAs boycotted the oath-taking ceremony of Akbaruddin Owaisi claiming that the Congress violated norms as there were other senior members in the House.

“Going by seniority in Assembly, I should have been the pro-tem Speaker, the senior most MLA in the Congress party, but since I have taken an oath as a minister, the procedure didn’t allow me to be a pro-tem Speaker. So then we looked at other 6-term MLAs, the most senior MLAs. Akbaruddin Owaisi is the most senior MLA among all the parties. So it is a normal procedure,” Uttam Kumar Reddy was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

Further exemplifying the decision taken under ex-Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s government, Reddy said that this was even followed during the previous BRS rule. He emphasised that the decision made by the Congress party was made purely based on what was right.

“When the BRS government was there last time, they had an AIMIM MLA as the pro-tem Speaker. This has nothing to do with anything else. We did what was the right thing to do. I cannot comment on the future equation with AIMIM,” the Telanaga minister added.

Why is a Pro-tem Speaker Appointed?

After the elections, a Pro-tem Speaker is appointed to administer the oath of office to the newly elected MLAs to preside over the voting and election of the new Speaker. As per the protocol, the senior-most legislator in the House is appointed as the Pro-tem Speaker till a Speaker is elected.

BJP Boycotts MLAs Oath Ceremony

Showcasing their protest against the newly-appointed Congress government under Revanth Reddy, all the eight BJP leaders, who won in the recently held Telangana elections, refused to participate in the oath ceremony.

“When there are other senior leaders in the new House, why should they pick an AIMIM legislator to do the honour? We will not take oath in front of a person (Akbaruddin Owaisi) who made anti-Hindu comments in the past,” BJP legislator Raja Singh said in a video message.