Speaker should go by the Statute, says Dharmana

Former minister Dharmana Prasada Rao, of the YCP, fears that our democratic polity is turning into a oligarchy with the ruling leader buying off those getting elected on a different label. At the way the ruling TDP was buying off YCP leaders, the constitutional rule was getting obliterated. Dharmana said every constitutional institution should strictly adhere to the Statute. Even the Speaker of the Assembly should go by the constitutional provisions, and he is not above those. Referring to Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, Dharmana said the TDP supremo had turned constituional rule into a business proposition. While the Anti-Defection Act was there, since the loopholes were being exploited to the full, the Act needed to be further strengthened, he added.