Speaker studying voting option?

• Indicates to members, he will go by rule book
• Tells them UP, Bihar Legislatures saw voting

Hyderabad: With just two days left for the deadline on the State Reorganisation Bill 2013 to come to an end, developments at the State Assembly are taking new twists and turns. It appears that Speaker N Manohar is inclined to allow voting on the Draft T Bill.

The possibility of accepting the notice moved by Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy for a resolution rejecting the Bill is also not ruled out. This speculation gained ground on Tuesday after the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) meeting.

Though, initially the leaders who attended the meeting said that meeting ended inconclusively, a note that was circulated to the members of the BAC by the Speaker indicated that he may agree to voting, CPI MLA Julakanti Ranga Reddy said.

He said the Speaker had referred to the instances where such resolutions were accepted and were put to vote when the Reorganisation Bills were debated in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar Legislatures. He said the possibility of the Speaker following the same precedence here cannot be ruled out. He, however, said Manohar had not revealed his mind on the issue at the meeting. He said when the members repeatedly asked him about it, his only reply was that all options were available to the Speaker. This, Reddy said, could be an indication that he would put the Bill to vote towards the fag-end of the deadline on January 30. If the Assembly continues to witness pandemonium, he may opt for voice vote, Reddy said.

Though the BAC meeting was convened to resolve the stalemate in the Assembly, neither the Leader of the House Kiran Kumar Reddy nor the Leader of Opposition Chandrababu Naidu attended it. Both the leaders interestingly left the Assembly almost at the same time from two different gates.

The BAC reportedly witnessed fireworks between members from both regions cutting across political lines. According to government whip A Mohan, the meeting witnessed a clear regional divide among the members of each party. Ministers Anam Ramanarayana Reddy, S Sailajanath and N Raghuveera Reddy wanted that the Chief Minister's notice be accepted whereas Telangana members headed by Deputy Chief Minister C Damodara Rajanarasimha opposed it. The T leaders asked the Speaker not to extend the sitting of the House beyond January 30 at any cost. The T TDP leader E Dayakar Rao also supported the Deputy Chief Minister and said that there was no scope for any resolution of voting and Speaker should not introduce any new precedence. The CPI leader G Mallesh told the Speaker that he should reject the notice given by the Chief Minister.

The Seemandhra members including TDP deputy leader G Muddukrishnama Naidu and others opposed it and said that they had not got a chance to speak due to the ruckus in the House and hence more time should be given to debate on the Bill. Manohar told the members that he would go by the rule book.

The BAC failed to arrive at any decision on the issue of fixing the time for concluding the debate and on how to deal with the 9,000 amendments. It was in fact an action replay of what has been happening on the floor of the house, TDP leader G Muddukrishnama Naidu said.