The Assembly turned into a platform for the Telugu Desam Party and the YSR Congress to trade charges against one another on their role in prompting the Centre to hasten the bifurcation process.
The debate on the AP Reorganisation Bill 2013 witnessed acrimonious scenes with the TDP members blaming late YSR for the revival of the separate Telangana demand and the YSR Congress criticising TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu for his “two eyes” theory. YSR Congress MLAs, at one point thronged the Speaker’s podium taking objections to TDP’s claims on late YSR, seeking an opportunity to set the record straight while the TDP members raised slogans from their seats.
Proceedings disruptedSpeaker Nadendla Manohar adjourned the House for some time amid the pandemonium, but the proceedings continued to be disrupted even after the House resumed. Repeated requests by the Speaker went in vain as the members continued raising slogans.
YSRC member B. Karunakara Reddy recalled how his party members submitted their resignations a day after the CWC announced its decision and how the party had been representing the need for keeping the State united to national and regional parties ever since. But the Centre did not respond to the requests as Mr. Naidu remained non-committal on united State while the Congress did not accept the proposal to create constitutional crisis by resigning en masse.
TDP members G. Muddukrishnama Naidu and D. Narendra Kumar, however, termed the claims as ridiculous and said it was the YSR Congress that asked the Centre to invoke Article 3. Mr. Karunakara Reddy said his party could not become party to the debate on the Bill which was drafted with an eye on a few Lok Sabha seats and the Bill would not help the two regions.
When Mr. Karunakara Reddy claimed that the Congress and the TDP were trying to tarnish the image of late YSR, Minister S. Sailajanath asserted that the former Chief Minister was a Congress leader and Chief Minister till his end. “YSR is our leader,” he said.
