Floor Leader of the Telugu Desam Party in the Telangana Legislative Assembly Errabelli Dayakar Rao, Deputy Leader A. Revanth Reddy, K.P. Vivekanand and A. Gandhi were denied entry into the Assembly complex on Thursday.
As soon as they drove up to the barricade at the MLAs entrance, police stopped them and arguments flew back and forth.
They were taken into preventive custody under Section 151 of the Criminal Procedure Code and escorted to the NTR Memorial Trust Bhavan, the party headquarters in Banjara Hills. The vehicle belonging to Mr. Revanth Reddy was also towed away.
Eleven MLAs of the TDP were suspended for the entire duration of the budget session after a series of events on March 7, before and during Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan’s address. Among their demands were action on TDP MLAs who had switched sides and joined the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, dismissal of T. Srinivas Yadav who was given a berth in the Cabinet and made Minister for Commercial Taxes and dissatisfaction over allotment of seats in the House.
When the MLAs gave vent to their frustration at being denied entry, police officers told them that it was as per orders of the Speaker S. Madhusudhana Chary that they are being stopped.
Three other TDP MLAs, Maganti Gopinath, S. Rajender Reddy and M. Krishna Rao, who managed to make their way through the main gates were stopped and persuaded to leave the complex. They were also escorted and dropped off at the party headquarters.
Mr. Dayakar Rao said the behaviour of the police was atrocious.
“How can they restrict of an elected representative inside the Assembly complex?” he fumed, even as first-time MLA, Mr. Vivekanand shook his head in frustration and wondering how the police could arrest them so many times.
