During the first session of the Third Telangana Assembly, the oath taking of the newly elected MLAs are in progress. While this is happening, the Telangana BJP called for boycott of the oath ceremony for the new MLAs. The boycott call was raised in protest of AIMIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisi being made the Protem Speaker of the state’s assembly who administers the oath to the new legislators.
#WATCH | Newly elected leaders take oath as members of the Telangana Legislative Assembly before Pro-tem Speaker Akbaruddin Owaisi
BJP MLAs are boycotting oath-taking with Pro-tem Speaker Akbaruddin Owaisi presiding over the proceedings pic.twitter.com/16whzG37Uc
— ANI (@ANI) December 9, 2023
T Raja Singh, BJP MLA who won from Goshamahal said he would never take in front of an AIMIM member ”as long as he is alive”. He said he would take oath only after a full term speaker is appointed. He further asked “can I take oath in front of a person (Akbaruddin Owaisi) who made anti-Hindu comments in the past?”.
“BJP MLAs will boycott taking oath before this Protem Speaker. Our MLAs will take oath after a speaker is appointed. We will never ally with such a party (AIMIM). We will go to the Governor on this”, said BJP’s state unit chief of Telangana, G Kishan Reddy while talking to reports.
BJP has won total eight seats in the assembly election of the state which was held in last month. Raja Singh refused to take oath during the 20218 assembly election for the same reason since the Protem Speaker back then was also a member of AIMIM party.
He accused the newly elected Chief Minister Revanth Reddy of Congress of being scared of AIMIM and for allowing Mr. Owaisi to be the Protem Speaker. the seniormost MLA of the assembly is made the Protem Speaker. It is the sixth time Mr. Owaisi was being chosen as the Protem Speaker. Raja Singh complained that there are many other senior MLAs in the assembly who could have been the Protem Speaker and that Congress is trying to appease the AIMIM leaders.