Andhra Pradesh Assembly today witnessed noisy scenes when treasury benches did not allow opposition leader Jaganmohan Reddy to speak initiating the no-confidence motion in the House . While the opposition YSRC wanted Jaganmohan Reddy to initiate the budget, legislative affairs minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu said rules do not allow Jagan to initiate the debate on the no-confidence as he was not signatory to the notice. According to rule of the House, both Assembly and Lok Sabha, a member who was not a signatory to the notice would not be allowed to speak,he said . YSRC members took strong objection and said it was up to their party to field the members of its choicc in the time allotted to the party. ” It is the prerogative my party to select the speakers. Minister should better know the conventions ,” party MLA Srikanth Reddy said.
YSRCP alleged that the notice was allowed when defector MLAs were not present in the House. But, Yanamala said the notice was allowed as per the procedure reported in ‘Kaul and Shakdher’ book on parliamentary procedures. The Opposition leader should first know the procedures before leveling charges against the government.
Yanamala also said the government had no objection to allow the Opposition leader to speak in the House. ” If speaker allows Jagan to speak we have no objection,” he said. Then speaker said Jagan could speak but he was not supposed to initiate the debate. At this time deputy leader of the party Jyothula Nehru initiated the debate and said he asked opposition leader Jaganmohan Reddy to speak, which objected to by the legislative affairs minister.
“As per the procedure, it is not the deputy leaderof YSRCP who gives the chance to speak to his leader. Next chance for the opposition party comes only after two members from the treasury benches spoke,” Yanamala said.
Yanamala riduculed Jagan for not signing the notice given by his own party ” Why is he so scared to affix sign on the notice,” Yanamala asked.
Later, Jagan disputed the Yanamala’s argument. ” When no-confidence motion was moved against Vajpayee government and the NDA government was defeated with one vote, even though Sonia Gandhi was not a signatory, she was allowed participate in the debate. Whether one is signatory or nor is not criterion. The party which served the notice can ask any of its members to participate in the debate within the time allotted to the party,” Jagan said.
Jagan accused that the ” dirty and murky politics played major role in the deciding the date of the debate.” “Whey was the time fixed for debate within hours the notice was allowed by the speaker? Because, all the eight members who were wooed in to TDP by promising allurements were not in the House,” Jagan said.
” On a day when none of the defector MLAs were present in the House, the notice was allowed and time fixed for the debate,” Jagan alleged.
Speaker Kodela Sivaprasada Rao did not allow Jagan to continue his objection. The speaker said the question before the house was the no-confidence motion, the members were not allowed to deviate from the subject.
