Hyderabad: The two-day special session of the Legislative Assembly, which begins on July 18, would witness changes in seating arrangements in view of the Congress losing the main opposition status.
Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan on Friday notified the two-day Assembly session and the one-day Legislative Council session to exclusively discuss and pass the New Municipal Act, 2019.
According to the notification, the Assembly will be assemble on July 18 at 11 am and the Council will meet at 2 pm on July 19.
After the merger of 12 Congress MLAs into the Telangana Rashtra Samiti, the Legislature Secretariat has issued notification cancelling the Opposition status to the Congress. With this, Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka has lost the status of Leader of Opposition.
As per the procedure, the Speaker of the House had allotted the left side rows to the prime Opposi-tion party and the Leader of the Opposition used to sit in the front seat of the row.
Though the Congress had won 19 seats in the December 2018 Assembly elections, 12 MLAs joined with the TRS. TPCC president Uttam Kumar Reddy, who was elected as an MLA, resigned to his membership of the House following his election to the Lok Sabha. The current strength of the Congress is 6 members.
The MIM, which is friendly party of the TRS, has 7 members in the House — one more than the Congress.
Though the MIM has been asking for the prime Opposition status in the House, it did not have the required number of 10 per cent seats in 120 members House — i.e. 12 seats.
In view of the change in the strength of the Congress in the House, sources in Legislature Secretariat disclosed that the Speaker will take decision on seating arrangements in a couple of days.
