BRS legislators not allowed to enter Telangana Assembly in objectionable T-shirts; detained

Hyderabad, Dec 9 (IANS) Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) legislators were detained by police at the entrance of the state Legislature on Monday as they tried to attend the Assembly session wearing T-shirts with an objectionable slogan.

BRS MLAs and MLCs led by the party’s Working President, K.T. Rama Rao were stopped by police and Assembly security at the gate as they were wearing T-shirts with an objectionable slogan.

The legislators insisted they be allowed to attend the session. This led to an argument between the two sides.

The BRS MLAs and MLCs told the security officials that Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and other Congress MPs attended the Parliament session last week with similar slogans.

The BRS legislators raised slogans against Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy.

As the tension mounted, police detained the BRS legislators and whisked them away in police vehicles.

The detained BRS leader included Rama Rao, MLC K. Kavitha and former minister T. Harish Rao.

All the BRS legislators were dropped at party headquarters Telangana Bhavan.

They staged a protest demonstration at Telangana Bhavan and raised slogans against the Congress government.

Earlier, the Opposition party MLAs and MLCs gathered at Telangana Martyrs’ Memorial in front of the Assembly building. After paying tributes to the martyrs, they walked towards the Legislature.

Monday was the first day of the Winter Session of both the Houses of the state Legislature.

K.T. Rama Rao also slammed the Congress government over modifying the statue of Telangana Thalli (Mother Telangana).

The BRS leader alleged that the government took away Bathukamma from the hand of Telangana Thalli and turned it into Congress party’s election symbol ‘hand’.

K.T. Rama Rao remarked that what the government has designed is mother of Congress party and not Telangana.

The modified statue of ‘Telangana Thalli’ is set to be unveiled by Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy in the state Secretariat on Monday evening.