T echoes reverberate in Lok Sabha

If the Andhra Pradesh State Assembly was rocked by the contentious Telangana issue before the Budget presentation in the state, the Lok Sabha too reverberated with the echoes of the bifurcation demand as TRS and some Congress Members sought to raise the issue, forcing the House to be adjourned twice.

The issue rocked the House almost as soon as it assembled for the day, with Telangana Rashtra Samithi president K Chandrasekhar Rao and his party MP Vijayashanti rising to their feet and demanding that the Speaker enlighten them on the status of the notice they had given for adjournment motion on Telangana issue. The two MPs demanded that the adjournment motion be carried out before the Question Hour began.

Speaker Meira Kumar told the TRS leaders that they could raise the issue during Zero Hour, but her words had seemingly no effect on the protesting MPs who demanded that their notice should be dealt with immediately.

As if not to be left behind on the issue, Congress MPs Manda Jagannadham, Madhu Yaskhi Goud and Sarvey Satyanarayana raised their own slogans, shouting ‘We want separate Telangana.’ The slogan shouting prompted Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs V Narayanasamy to intervene and attempt to bring a semblance of order in the House as the TRS and Congress MPs sought to outshout each other.

As the crescendo intensified with KCR and Vijayashanti trooping into the Well of the House, Ms Meira Kumar adjourned the proceedings till 11:30 AM. Meanwhile, the TDP MPs from Seemandhra regions were seen raising placards on which ‘Samaikya Andhra Pradesh’ slogans were scribbled across.

Soon after the House reassembled, Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj rose to her feet and declared that her party, the Bharatiya Janata Party would support a Bill seeking to split Andhra Pradesh into two. She also demanded that such a Bill must be introduced in the Budget Session itself.

Ms Swaraj also pointed out that the noncooperation agitation and the subsequent 48-hour bandh call had paralysed life in Telangana. This, she said, could be resolved by tabling a Bill on separate Telangana. She also said that even Congress MPs from the region joined shoulders with their TRS counterparts in support of the issue.