Formation of Telangana on June 2, 2014 was a historic moment for the people of the State. And the dissolution of its first Assembly -- more than eight months ahead of the tenure -- will go down in the annals of history as a separate chapter.
People would have taken it as an offence in 2014 had anyone even hinted about dissolving the Assembly ahead of its tenure. What started as unconfirmed report a few months ago, some say was a deliberate political leakage to test pulse of voters and turned into a reality on Thursday.
The historic first Telangana Assembly had nine sessions in nearly 52 months. The Assembly sat for 123 days. It worked for 544 hours and 58 minutes. Beginning with 63 members during the first session, the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi improved its number to 82 by March 29, 2018 during the ninth session.
Like in any other Assembly, heated exchanges between treasury and opposition members were witnessed here too. Suspension of members for obstructing the House proceedings too was reported some times, but the issue of expulsion of two Congress MLAs -Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and S.A. Sampath Kumar - of Nalgonda and Alampur constituencies respectively will remain a separate chapter.
The House passed a resolution recommending expulsion of the two members for their objectionable behaviour. Challenging the expulsion, the two legislators moved Hyderabad High Court. A single judge had set aside their expulsion.
As membership of the two legislators was not restored despite the HC order, the judge issued contempt proceedings against the Legislature Secretary and the Law Secretary along with the DGP and the SPs of Nalgonda and Gadwal Jogulamba districts.
The two Secretaries, however, moved the division bench of the High Court and secured orders staying the contempt proceedings. With the House dissolved, now the entire matter is put to rest.