The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Assembly session opens today

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 31, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Assembly session opens today

By Dasu Kesava Rao

HYDERABAD, MAY 30. The recently-elected members will take oath of affirmation when the inaugural session of the 12th Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly begins at 11 a.m. on Monday.

The mood is predictably upbeat in the Congress, which is back in the seat of power after 10 years. The Chief Minister, Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, who had spearheaded a spirited attack on the Telugu Desam Government as Leader of the Opposition in the 11th Assembly, will be the first to take the oath in his capacity as the leader of the 294-member House followed by Nara Chandrababu Naidu, Leader of the Opposition, heading the 47-member Telugu Desam Legislature Party, and Ministers. Rest of the members will be administered the oath by the pro tem Speaker, P. Sambasiva Raju, senior most member of the House, as per alphabetical order.

Mr. Sambasiva Raju, Congress member from Sathiwada in Vizianagaram district and a former Minister, will be formally sworn in pro tem Speaker by the Governor, Surjit Singh Barnala, at the Raj Bhavan earlier in the day.

Nominations for the election of the Speaker are scheduled for Monday and the election the following day. K.R. Suresh Reddy, Congress member from Balkonda in Nizamabad district, is strongly tipped to be the choice of the ruling party. This will be decided when Dr. Rajasekhara Reddy returns from New Delhi tomorrow.

After the election of the Speaker on June 1, the House will meet again in the evening for the address by the Governor, Mr. Barnala. The brief session ends on June 5 after three days of debate on the Governor's address and reply to it by the Chief Minister. The ordinance on the vote on account budget (April 1 to July 31) will be replaced by a bill on June 5, the last day.

With the Congress and its allies in a euphoric mood and the Opposition preferring to lie low for some time, the proceedings are likely to be anything but "stormy." The continuing spate of suicide by farmers is bound to figure in the debate on the Governor's address. The Telugu Desam has compiled the details of the suicides after the new Government took office. The main Opposition party has decided to set up "shadow committees" for effective participation in the debates. K. Chandrasekhar Rao, president of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti, who was elected to the Lok Sabha and the Assembly, resigned as member from the Siddipet Assembly constituency.

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