AP: Legislative Council to come up on April 2

Hyderabad, Apr 1: Legislative Council will be coming into existence in Andhra Pradesh tomorrow after a gap of 22 years.

Actor-turned-politician N T Rama Rao who founded the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and stormed into power within seven months of establishing the party in 1983, was constantly irked by Congress as it had a majority in the Council. Several bills were returned to the Assembly for reconsideration.

The TDP got the Council abolished through a resolution in the Assembly where it had two third majority. The reason shown for the abolition was austerity.

Congress which came to power in 2004, promised to revive the upper House in its election manifesto and fulfilled it after three years.

Governor Rameshwar Thakur would administer the oath as Pro tem Chairman to CPI leader Puvvada Nageswara Rao who was a member of the abolished House, at 0830 hrs in Raj Bhavan tomorrow morning. The House would meet at 1030 hrs at Jubilee Hall and members would be sworn in by the Pro tem Chairman.

The Governor would inaugurate the renovated Council building tomorrow and the regular session of the upper House would be held on April three. On the same day the regular Chairman would be elected.

The Legislative Council was first established through a resolution of the Assembly on July one, 1958 when Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy was the Chief Minister. Assembly members elected 31 members, local bodies elected 31 members, teachers and graduates elected eight members each and Governor nominated 12 members. The same procedure would be followed.

Madapati Hanumantha Rao was the first Chairman of the Council and Syed Mukasir Shah was the Chairman when it was abolished. Gottipati Brahmaiah, Thota Ramaswamy, Pidathala Ranga Reddy and Nivarti Venkata Subbaiah were prominent among the Chairmen of the upper House.

Present Finance Minister K Rosaiah, Jupudi Yagnarayana, V Rama Rao, P V Chalapati Rao, Moturi Hanumanta Rao, K Keshava Rao (APCC President and Rajya Sabha Member), Bhavanam Venkata Ram and Bangaru Lakshman were among the prominent members of the Legislative Council.

Eminent personolities like Boyi Bhimanna (poet), Nerella Venu Madhav (mimicry artiste), Varadacharyulu, Ilendula Saraswati Devi (writers) and Sivalenka Sambhu Prasad (Editor of the now defunct Andhra Patrika) were prominent among the nominated members. MLCs would get the same salary and perks as members of the Assembly. The leader of the opposition would enjoy the same status as the opposition leader in the Assembly (Cabinet rank).

So far only 64 members (including 12 nominated by the Governor) were elected to the 90 member House. Council members also would be provided quarters like Assembly members.

While the Assembly session would start at 0830 hrs the Council session would start at 1000 hrs, so that Ministers could answer questions in both the Houses.

Secretary Legislature Tuljananda Singh had sent telegrams to all the 64 members urging them to attend the sesssion tomorrow.

UNI