Hyderabad: In an unprecedented action the Telangana Legislative Assembly today disqualified two opposition Congress members in connection with unruly behaviour in the House yesterday, which left the Chairman of Legislative Council Swamy Goud injured.

Apart from disqualifying Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and A S Sampath Kumar, the House also suspended 11 other Congress members, including the Leader of opposition K Jana Reddy.

K Swamy Goud was hit on the right eye when Venkat Reddy flung his headphones towards the governor who was addressing the House. Goud had to be taken to the government Eye Hospital for treatment.

The two Congress MLAs K Cenkat Reddy and Vasantha Kumar Tuesday launched a 48-hour hunger strike at Gandhi Bhavan in protest against their disqualification. “Our hunger strike is to save democracy in the state”, said Venkat Reddy.

A large number of Congress leaders and workers have thronged to their hunger strike camp.

Speaking at the camp Telangana state Congress working president Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka said that the TRS government had murdered democracy in the state. “Never in the history a member was disqualified from the Assembly”, he said. “The government did it so the opposition could not corner them in the assembly”.

The other members suspended for the entire Budget Session include N Uttam Kumar Reddy, Bhatti Vikramarka, T Jeevan Reddy, J Geeta Reddy, G Chinna Reddy, D K Aruna, Padmavathy, T Rammohan Reddy, T Madhava Reddy and Vams Chand.

The resolution moved by the legislative affairs minister T Harish Rao was adopted by the House by voice votes but the floor leaders of MIM and the BJP urged the Speaker to withdraw the suspension of the LoP as he was not associated with the incidents during the state governor ESL Narasimhan’s address to the joint session of the Assembly and Council yesterday.

As the Speaker announced the adopting of the resolution, the Congress members started slogans and refused to go out of the House. The Speaker said that he was shocked by yesterday’s incident, which was a blot on the House in the four-year history of Telangana Legislature.

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao termed the action “as painful but necessary” as the Congress members had come pre-determined to create ruckus in the House.

The House would not go back on taking tough actions against the members who behave against dignity and decorum of the House, Chief Minister and Leader of the House said.

“The government had prior information about the Congress members’ move. They went on record saying their target was the Governor. This reflects their impatience”, he added.

He charged the opposition Congress with spreading falsehood against his government since its inception in 2014 as they were unable to digest the fact that the people reposed confidence in the ruling party in a series of by elections held after TRS came to power. “Members have right to agitate. My government is clear on holding debates come what may. But the Congress members have cross the limits”, he said adding that the House was definitely right in expelling two members and suspending two others.

BJP floor leader G Kishan Reddy said that Jana Reddy as the Leader of the opposition had failed in restraining his party members. “He was helpless”, he said requesting the House to take back his suspension.

Akbaruddin Owaisi, floor leader or MIM also made the same plea but supported the action of the House. He urged the speaker to come out with the findings of the inquiry that he ordered into the incident. “You should recommend the government to take further action on the basis of the outcome of the inquiry”, he said.

“We are law makers and we should behave like one”, he said..