13th Assembly set a record in resignations

Hyderabad: The 13th AP Legislative Assembly is creating a record of sorts in the legislative history of the country. Within 23 months of its existence, it witnessed resignations of 90 percent of its members at one time or the other for emotional, regional, individual or some other reasons.

Except for the seven MIM, sole Loksatta and single CPI-M and a few members (other than the Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Chief Minister and some ministers) almost all the members have resigned at one time or the other.

All these members tendered their resignations by using the article 101 of the Indian Constitution of rule 186 of the rule procedure and conduct of the business in AP Legislative Assembly, which deals with the issue of Members resignations and vacation of seats in the House. The 13th assembly has witnessed as many as 305 resignations of its members.

In the first phase, a total of 160 legislators of Seemandhra region belonged to the Congress, Telugu Desam and Praja Rajyam Party submitted their resignations on December 10, 2009 after Union home minister P Chidambaram's statement on Telangana on December 9, 2009. They were rejected by then Speaker N Kirankumar Reddy by saying it as an 'act of emotion'.

After that, about 10 Telangana Rastra Samithi MLAs and one each from TD and BJP have also submitted their resignations and it were accepted later and they re-elected to the Assembly in the bye-elections held in July 2010.

On September 24, 1951, after a lengthy debate on H G Mudgal issue of the Lok Sabha was of unanimous opinion that the resignations became effective the moment it was signed and handed over to the Speaker.

Once a member tenders an unqualified resignation, the Speaker is bound to take action on it and it cannot be kept pending long, according to former Lok Sabha secretary-general Subhash Kashyap in his parliamentary procedure book.

As many as 100 Congress, TRS, CPI, PRP and TDP MLAs tendered their resignations in the third week of July and they were made null and void by the present Speaker Nandendla Manohar.

After that, three legislators belonged to Jagan group K Surekha, Jayasudha and K Satyavathi and four TD rebel MLAs Nagam Janardhana Reddy, S Venugopalachari, Jogu Ramanna and K Hareeswara Reddy submitted their resignations to the Speaker and they were pending with the Speaker.

In the latest incident, about 23 Congress and two TD legislators and one PRP MLA having allegiance to Jagan tendered their resignations protesting against the inclusion of the name of YS Rajasekhara Reddy in the FIR filed by the CBI in Emaar case taking the number of resignations to 305. No other assembly in the country has witnessed such a large number resignations and rejections in 23 months.