The Legislative Assembly on Wednesday adopted a resolution denying voting rights to nominated MLAs. Members of the All India N.R. Congress, the principal Opposition party, staged a walkout after Speaker V. Vaithilingam denied them permission to debate on the resolution.
Immediately after the House passed the Appropriation Bill, Chief Whip R.K.R Ananantharaman, while raising a point of order on the nomination of BJP leaders V. Swaminathan, K.G. Shankar and S. Selvaganapathy as MLAs, sought the House permission to pass a resolution denying them voting rights.
The new members urged the Chair not to pass such a resolution but the Speaker V. Vaithilingam refused to hear their plea.
As AINRC members protested against this and urged the Speaker to put the resolution to a voice vote. The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam objected to the move to pass the resolution without holding a discussion on the issue.
Mr. Anantharaman, in his point of order, said the nominated MLAs were allowed to participate in the proceedings without prejudice to the case pending in the Supreme Court.
Questioning their nomination made by the Centre, Mr. Anantharaman said one of the MLAs lost the Assembly elections.
Asking the Chair to adopt the resolution, the Chief Whip said nominated members were not allowed to participate in the Presidential polls. So, the three members should be denied the voting rights inside the Assembly, he said.
To another point of order raised by Parliamentary Secretary to the Chief Minister K. Lakshminarayanan, the Speaker said he had allowed the members to honour the Supreme Court observation favouring their admission in the House. They were given permission only till September 11 when the next hearing of the case comes up in the court, the Speaker said.
Earlier, when the House commenced its proceedings, AIADMK leader A. Anbalagan said the Budget session was not held as per rules. He said the House was adjourned sine die on July 19 after the Lt. Governor denied permission to table the Appropriation Bill.
He sought to know from the Speaker whether the Lt. Governor had put any condition for giving her approval to table the Bill on Wednesday’s session.
CM’s reply
Replying to AIADMK member’s charge, Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy said the Budget session which commenced on July 2 was originally scheduled to be held till July 27.
The government had to cut short the session on July 19 as MLAs expressed their wish to visit Delhi to gather support for Statehood.
Just three-days before the House was adjourned sine die on July 19, the Chief Minister’s Office forwarded the Appropriation Bill to Raj Nivas for Lt. Governor’s approval. However, she did not give the approval till the day the House was adjourned.
On July 20, the Lt. Governor gave her assent with a condition to admit the BJP members in the House, the Chief Minister said.
Mr. Narayanasamy said he wrote to the Lt. Governor on July 24 stating that the Speaker was the sole authority on deciding whether to admit the members or not. The government or the Lt. Governor had no business to decide on matters pertaining to the conduct of the House.
The Chief Minister said he was yet to get a reply from Ms. Bedi.
