On AIMIM MLA Taking Oath As Interim Speaker, Telangana Minister Says...
NDTV
The Bharatiya Janata Party accused the Congress government of 'neglecting' the senior candidates for the post and of defying the existing tradition of the House.
Amid the protest over the appointment of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen's Akbaruddin Owaisi as a pro-tem Speaker of the assembly, Telangana Minister and Congress leader Uttam Kumar Reddy on Saturday said that "It is a normal procedure and added that the Congress party did what was the right thing to do".
"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," he told ANI.
Further, Reddy defended the appointment of an All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) MLA as the pro-tem Speaker, stating it was a normal procedure followed even during the previous BRS government. He emphasised that the decision was made based on what was right, not due to any external factors.
