Telangana BJP MLAs boycott oath-taking with Akbaruddin Owaisi as pro-tem speaker

Hyderabad: Ahead of the first Telangana Legislative Assembly session and the oath-taking ceremony of MLAs elected, the MLAs of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced their boycott of the session with protem speaker Akbaruddin Owaisi presiding over the proceedings.

Telangana BJP chief G Kishan Reddy while addressing a press conference said that the party was against the appointment of Akbaruddin Owaisi as Pro-tem Speaker (of Telangana Assembly) as it was “against the tradition of appointing senior MLAs to the post.”

Alleging that the Congress has an “understanding” with the AIMIM he said, “We have won 8 seats and reached 14% vote percentage in the state. There is a ritual of appointing a senior leader as pro-tem Speaker.”

Stating that the MLAs have boycotted taking an oath before Akbaruddin Owaisi as pro-tem speaker, Kishan Reddy said that they would take oath after a Speaker is appointed. “We will never ally with such a party (AIMIM). We will go to the Governor on this,” added Kishan Reddy.

The BJP has decided to approach the Governor demanding that the election of the Assembly Speaker should not take place with Akbaruddin Owaisi as pro-tem Speaker.

The BJP MLAs-elect on Saturday skipped the Assembly session and paid a visit to the Bhagyalaxmi temple alongside BJP chief Kishan Reddy.