What do you do when your unanimous authority comes under sudden challenge? You would want to look into your own faults. But Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) does not seem to believe in this archetypal truth. At least, the suspension of 3 BJP MLAs from Telangana Assembly indicates that.
- 3 BJP MLAs have been suspended from Telangana Assembly after they raised their voice against TRS government
- These MLAs wanted state Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan to address the state assembly in the beginning of Budget session
- Suspension of BJP MLAs indicate that TRS is not able to cope up with the increasing support for BJP in South India
Three BJP MLAs suspended
Recently, three BJP MLAs have been suspended from the Telangana assembly during the Budget Session. The MLAs in spotlight are M Raghunandan Rao from Dubbak, T Raja Singh from Goshamahal and Eatala Rajender from Huzurabad assembly constituencies. They have been accused of obstructing the presentation of state finance minister T Harish Rao’s
Apparently, the TRS government had not allowed the Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan to address the state assembly in the beginning of Budget session. The Government had urged that since it was continuation of previous session which was not discontinued. However, the Governor’s office said that Budget Session is the new one because it started 5 months after previous session.
Suspended MLAs move to Raj Bhavan
Sniffing political malfeasance, BJP MLAs came to assembly with black stoles and started protesting against the government’s decision. State animal husbandry minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav then moved a motion seeking suspension of the BJP members for the rest of the session. It was approved by Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy.
BJP members then moved to Raj Bhavan to seek justice. They submitted a memorandum to Hon’ble Governor and requested her to advise speaker for revoking the order. Alleging that MLAs’ suspension mean that Constitution has been subverted, memorandum read, “In a democracy, people are the supreme authority and no government has the authority to subvert the Constitution and muzzle the voices that question,”
Regional South Indian parties struggling
The suspension order came as a surprise for outside observers. However, anyone with a keen eye on the South Indian politics knows that the message is much deeper than what is visible at surface. Suspension is not a norm in democracy. So, obviously there must be some other reason lying underneath.
Currently, the regional parties in South India are suffering from massive legitimacy crisis. Parties like YSRCP in Andhra, DMK in Tamil Nadu, CPI-M in Kerala, have not been able to deal with the transformation in political equations.
Read more: BJP should abandon Pawan Kalyan and re-adopt Chandrababu Naidu if it’s serious about Andhra
YSRCP is so much worried by its incompetency and falling voter base that recently Jagan Mohan Reddy personally urged his MLAs to interact with people in their respective constituencies on regular basis. His political problems have been exacerbated by Chandrababu Naidu’s challenge of early assembly polls.
To top it all, in states like Tamil Nadu and Kerala, BJP is making massive inroads thanks to its dedicated, ever working cadre. On the other hand, Karnataka is already saffronised, which was evident is recent Hijab vs Gamcha row.
Read more: Bhagwa gamchha in response to black hijabs. Bravo Karnataka students
TRS trying to stifle BJP ahead of assembly elections
This is exactly what TRS and other parties in Telangana are scared of. They are witnessing the increasing support base of BJP in South Indian states. This is the reason why recently Congress tried to play UP-Bihar card to stoke emotions against these states as well as BJP. In South, BJP is believed by many to be the representative of North Indian sentiments. Notably, the party had also grabbed 4 out of 13 Lok Sabha Seats in 2019, something nobody expected in their wildest dreams.
Read more: After Punjab, it is now Telangana which has gone anti-Bihar
As such, the ruling TRS has also jumped in to fight against BJP. KCR will contest elections for India’s youngest state votes in 2023. In 2018, he managed to increase his party score to 88 (out of 117). The Congress, earlier, was the main Opposition in Telangana, but the current situation shows the rise of the BJP which is unofficially the principal opposition of Telangana.
Read more: KCR is losing Telangana and the early signs are here
As such, the arbitrary suspension of MLAs demand extraordinary circumstances as voices of millions of people whom these MLAs are representing is effective stifled. If suspension in assembly is being handled like school report card, it indicates that TRS’ intention is to halt the increasing vote bank of BJP.
