HYDERABAD: The special session of the Assembly convened to discuss a no confidence motion against Speaker K. R. Suresh Reddy tabled by the Telugu Desam and Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) concluded amid confusion after Deputy Speaker G. Kutuhulamma declared the motion defeated by voice vote and abruptly adjourned the House.

Opposition members were dazed when Ms. Kutuhalamma announced that she was putting the motion to vote even as the House was discussing, rather heatedly, the Opposition parties’ objection to her allowing a TRS rebel member Mandadi Satyanarayana Reddy to speak.

She then read out the motion and declared that it was defeated before adjourning the House sine die.

This ended the seven-and-a-half hour-long debate on no-trust motion tabled by the TDP accusing the Speaker of not being impartial by suspending its member Karanam Balaramkrishnamurthy for six months.

The TRS, through a separate motion charged him with failing to implement the anti-defection law in respect of the ten rebel MLAs against whom it had petitioned Mr. Reddy in March 2007.
The two motions were supported by 53 members, three more than the statutory requirement of 50.

They comprised 45 members of the TDP, seven of TRS and L. Raja Rao of BSP. A TDP member Veerasiva Reddy defied the party whip and did not attend the House.

Protesting against the Deputy Speaker’s action, all the opposition members squatted in the well and later staged a sit-in outside.

Trouble was sparked off when Ms. Kutuhalamma called Mr. Satyanarayana Reddy to speak on behalf of the rebel MLAs.

As TRS and TDP members rushed into the well to protest, she insisted that she had accepted their written request to air their views as they had disowned membership of TRS.

She refused to verify rival claims about the membership of rebels because the issue was pending before Mr. Suresh Reddy.