Hyderabad: The inaugural assembly of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Telangana Legislature resulted in chaos on Saturday as Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLAs staged a walkout in protest in opposition to the appointment of Serilingampally MLA Arekapudi Gandhi because the committee’s chairman.
Earlier the BRS members accused Speaker Gaddam Prasad of partisan conduct and claimed that the Legislative Affairs minister D. Sridhar Babu was talking on behalf of Prasad. This led to heated arguments between Sridhar Babu and the BRS MLAs.
The BRS leaders alleged that the appointment of Gandhi, who they declare defected to the Congress within the presence of Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, was unlawful and demanded his disqualification underneath the anti-defection regulation.
Vemula Prashanth Reddy, senior BRS legislator, expressed disgust that the get together’s plea concerning the variety of nominations obtained for the PAC chairmanship went unheeded.
“We had been requested to ship 5 names and Gandhi’s identify was not amongst them,” he stated, including that their nominated candidate, T. Harish Rao, was missed with out rationalization.
He identified that PAC performs an important function in democracy because it screens authorities expenditure. Lack of transparency within the choice course of has raised considerations about honest governance, he stated.
The walkout was met with sturdy counter-arguments from Congress MLAs, who dismissed the allegations as inner bickering throughout the BRS. Congress MLA Yennam Srinivas Reddy claimed that BRS factions had been against Gandhi’s appointment due to inner divisions.
“There are 4 factions inside BRS, and evidently none of them can agree on who ought to signify them. The speaker appointed Gandhi following custom, which dictates that the primary opposition get together, at present the BRS, receives the PAC chairmanship,” Yennam said.
He additional famous that the BRS, whereas in energy, had beforehand allotted the PAC chairman submit to the Congress in 2014, and to AIMIM in 2018, in accordance with the variety of MLAs within the opposition benches.
The disruption leaves uncertainty over the long run functioning of the PAC, which is crucial in guaranteeing accountability for public expenditure.
“We boycotted the assembly as a result of our questions had been left unanswered,” Prashanth Reddy stated.
The incident underscores rising tensions inside BRS in addition to between the ruling get together and opposition. The controversy is anticipated to have a ripple impact on Telangana’s political panorama.