BJP MLAs suspended from Telangana assembly over Muslim quota bill

Hyderabad: All five members of the BJP on Sunday were suspended from the Telangana legislative assembly as they tried to stall the proceedings to protest the bill for raising the reservation quota for Muslims in the state.

Speaker Madhusudhana Chary announced the suspension of all the Bharatiya Janata Party members for the one-day special session of the house after Legislative Affairs Minister Harish Rao moved a resolution to this effect.

BJP floor leader G. Kishan Reddy and the party's state President K. Laxman were among the lawmakers suspended from the house.

The BJP members raised slogans against the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government and tried to disrupt the debate on the draft legislation that seeks to increase quota for the Muslims and the Scheduled Tribes to 12 and 10 per cent respectively.

Earlier, participating in the debate Kishan Reddy termed the bill unconstitutional and said it would not stand judicial scrutiny.

He said the BJP was strongly opposed to reservations on the basis of religion, and alleged that injustice was done to the Backward Classes by including Muslims in the BC (E) category.

Kishan Reddy said the four per cent quota provided to the Muslims by the previous government in undivided Andhra Pradesh was struck down by various courts and the case was still pending in the Supreme Court. 

He found fault with the TRS government for clubbing the Scheduled Tribes reservation with the Muslim quota in a single bill.