The Telangana Assembly approved the budget provisions for 2014-15 on Friday by passing the Appropriation Bill amid a walkout by Telugu Desam Party (TDP) members in the Assembly on Friday. The TDP protest was against its member, A. Revanth Reddy, not being allowed to speak and not against the bill, while the remaining parties supported it.
The passage of the Appropriation Bill without opposition is being seen as a morale-booster for the TRS as the main Opposition, Congress, had planned to press for a division, obviously to fix the party legislators, who defected to the TRS, on the floor of the House. Incidentally, the Congress and the TDP had issued whips to their members, including those who had defected to the TRS, to attend and vote during the division.
Dramatic gestureFour MLAs from the Congress, three from TDP, two from BSP and one from YSR Congress joined the TRS ranks after the formation of the government. In a dramatic manner, Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao, after winding up his 90-minute speech, rose again to appeal to all parties to pass the maiden Appropriation Bill unanimously. He said that it needed guts for a ruling party to announce that it would not seek votes in the next elections if it failed to give protected water to every household by then.
This prompted the Opposition Leader in the Assembly, K. Jana Reddy, to announce that they were withdrawing the whip to send a positive signal stating that the entire State was behind the government.
He, however, suggested the government to keep in mind the concerns expressed by them (Congress). The TDP led by Errabelli Dayakar Rao, while supporting the Bill, chose to walk out protesting denial of chance to its member Revanth Reddy to speak.