As the winter session of the Telangana state assembly began on Monday, all eyes were on the arrival of Bharat Rashtra Samithi president and leader of opposition K Chandrasekhar Rao to the House after a long gap of more than nine months.
However, the assembly witnessed a brief presence of the BRS supremo. KCR came to the assembly from his Nandinagar residence, amid rousing reception from BRS legislators who escorted him into the House. He took his seat even before most members arrived.
But he left the House within five minutes of the commencement of the state assembly, immediately after the condolence motions concluded.
Upon entering the assembly hall, chief minister A Revanth Reddy personally approached KCR and exchanged greetings, enquiring about his health. KCR responded courteously, saying he was doing well.
Several ministers and legislators—including Uttam Kumar Reddy, Sridhar Babu, Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, Seethakka, Vakiti Srihari, Adluri Laxman Kumar, government whips Birla Ilaiah and Adi Srinivas, Congress MLAs, and CPI MLA Kunamneni Sambasiva Rao—also greeted the former chief minister.
KCR remained in the House only briefly before leaving along with former minister Harish Rao and returning to his residence.
The assembly paid tributes to two former MLAs—Ram Reddy Damodara Reddy and Konda Laxman Reddy—who passed away recently. Condolence resolutions were introduced on the opening day, following which members observed silence in their memory.
Meanwhile, the government is expected to bring legislative backing for a series of key policy decisions, including the merger of ORR-area municipalities into GHMC, increasing GHMC wards from 150 to 300, removal of the two-child norm in local body elections, amendments to the Telangana GST Act, and employee rationalisation measures.