Telangana minister upholds appointment of Owaisi as pro-tem speaker, cites decision as 'right thing'

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ANI, the Congress leader said, “I should have been the pro-tem Speaker, the senior most MLA in the Congress party, but since I have taken an oath as a minister, the procedure didn't allow me to be a pro-tem Speaker. So, Akbaruddin Owaisi is the most senior MLA among all the parties." “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," the Telangana Minister said.

Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan administered oath to All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi as a pro tem Speaker. His appointment has, however, sparked a controversy as some BJP MLAs have boycotted the oath-taking event. BJP MLA-elect from Goshamahal, Raja Singh, in a video message, said he and other saffron party MLAs would not participate in the oath-taking ceremony with Akbaruddin Owaisi presiding over the proceedings.

Union minister G Kishan Reddy said on Saturday that the BJP decided to boycott the oath-taking event, alleging violation of assembly rules in the appointment of pro-tem Speaker. "BJP is against the appointment of Akbaruddin Owaisi as Pro-tem Speaker (of Telangana Assembly). This is against the tradition of appointing senior MLAs to the post.

The BJP MLAs will boycott taking oaths before this pro-tem Speaker," he said. "Our MLAs will take oaths after a speaker is appointed. We will never ally with such a party (AIMIM).