The ongoing tiff between the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) party and Telangana Governor, Tamilisai Soundararajan, has reached the doorsteps of the Telangana High Court.
The latest flashpoint is related to the upcoming budget Assembly session scheduled to begin on February 3. As per the norm, the budget is sent to the Governor who usually returns the file with a seal of consent after which the budget is presented on the floor of the Assembly. The state government sent the budget documents to the Governor on January 21 and followed it up with reminders from the Finance minister and his department. But the Governor did not act on it. It is also a tradition for the Governor to address the members of the House before the budget session every year.
Last year, there was a break to this as the Governor wasn’t allowed to deliver her address citing technical reasons. Keeping that in mind, the Governor’s office has now sought to know if there will be an address of hers this time. Irked by the file getting stuck in the Governor’s office, the has filed a writ petition on this issue in the High Court to direct the Governor to clear the file.
The HC agreed to hear the lunch motion petition on Monday afternoon after the Advocate General (AG), BS Prasad said that the issue was related to a “constitutional crisis.” Supreme Court senior counsel Dushyant Dave appeared for the Telangana government. The matter was settled amicably post arguments from both sides after which the Telangana government withdrew the petition. It has been reliably learnt that the government agreed to include the Governor’s speech and in return, the Governor’s office would give consent to the bill during informal talks held on Monday.
For close to one year now, CM K. Chandrashekar Rao and the state Governor have been at loggerheads. Recently, on January 26, Republic Day, the Governor and the CM appeared in separate events contrary to the custom of celebrating it together in one venue. The Governor has been repeatedly accusing the CM and his party members of disrespecting the office of the Governor by not following protocols and not responding to her directions.
On the other hand, the BRS has alleged that the Governor was not green-lighting several bills sent to her office. The issue also gained a political colour as BRS accused the Governor of acting on the behest of the BJP party leadership. The state BJP president Bandi Sanjay came to the defence of the Governor and sought to know why the BRS government was not allowing the Governor to attend the budget sessions. The fallout has also led to complaints being lodged in police stations.
A few days back, BRS leader and MLC Kaushik Reddy made a derogatory comment about the Governor while reacting on this issue. BJP members filed complaints against Kaushik Reddy in different police stations.
