The Congress has said that it did the right thing by appointing All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi as a pro-tem Speaker of the assembly, calling it a "normal procedure".
This comes as the BJP opposed the appointment of Owaisi alleging an understanding between the Congress and the AIMIM. The BJP also accused the Congress government of 'neglecting' the senior candidates for the post and of defying the existing tradition of the House.
Owaisi was administered the oath by Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan as the pro-tem Speaker at the Raj Bhavan on Saturday and he presided over the proceedings in the House.
However, Congress leader Uttam Singh Reddy rubbished the rumours of any tacit understanding between the both parties. "Going by seniority in Assembly, I should have been the pro-tem speaker, the senior most MLA in the Congress party, but since I have taken oath as a minister, the procedure didn't allow me to be a pro-tem speaker. So then we looked at other six-term MLAs, the most senior MLAs. Akbaruddin Owaisi is the most senior MLA among all the parties. So it is a normal procedure," he told ANI.
He added that this was a normal procedure followed even during the previous BRS government and denied the allegations that the decision was made due to any external factors.
The BJP had alleged that Congress had only a wafer-thin majority in the Assembly and the AIMIM member was made the pro tem speaker as per a plan to avoid a collapse of the government. The BJP also requested the Governor to instruct the officials concerned to withhold the process of election of a new full-time Speaker for the newly constituted assembly pending nomination of a senior most member as speaker.
However, Reddy added that he cannot comment on the future equation with AIMIM. "When the BRS government was there last time, they had an AIMIM MLA as the pro-tem speaker. This has nothing to do with anything else. We did what was the right thing to do. I cannot comment on the future equation with AIMIM. That's for our state leadership to discuss with everybody. And also for our national leadership to discuss and give us a direction," Reddy said.
