Telangana BJP boycotts new MLAs oath ceremony after Akbaruddin Owaisi made interim Speaker

News Network

December 9, 2023

Hyderabad, Dec 9: Telangana BJP today boycotted the oath ceremony for the newly elected MLAs, objecting to AIMIM's Akbaruddin Owaisi being appointed Protem Speaker of the state assembly. The Protem Speaker is tasked with administering oath to the new legislators.

BJP MLA T Raja Singh, who won from Goshamahal in last month's assembly elections, said in a video message that he would never take oath "as long as he is alive" in front of the AIMIM. He said he would take oath only after a full term speaker is appointed.

"Can I take oath in front of a person (Akbaruddin Owaisi) who made anti-Hindu comments in the past," he asked.

The BJP had won eight seats in last month's election. The party's state unit chief G Kishan Reddy said that the BJP was against the appointment of Mr Owaisi as it is against the tradition of appointing senior MLAs as Protem Speaker.

"BJP MLAs will boycott taking oath before this Protem Speaker. Our MLAs will take oath after a Speaker is appointed. We will never ally with such a party (AIMIM). We will go to the Governor on this," he told reporters.

Raja Singh had refused to be administered oath in 2018 too since the Protem Speaker appointed then was also from the AIMIM.

Mr Owaisi was expected to take oath as the Protem Speaker on Saturday and then administer the oath to the elected MLAs on the same today.

Mr Singh alleged that Congress's Revanth Reddy, the new Chief Minister of Telangana, is scared of the AIMIM like his predecessor K Chandrashekar Rao, and thus allowed Mr Owaisi to be the Protem Speaker.

The seniormost MLA in the assembly is made the Protem Speaker, as per the protocol. Mr Owaisi was elected to the assembly (including the united Andhra assembly) from Chandrayangutta constituency for the sixth time.

However, Mr Singh claimed there are many senior MLAs who could have been made the Protem Speaker, but the new Chief Minister was trying to appease the minorities and AIMIM leaders.

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India’s Modi govt will buy oil from Venezuela, not Iran: Trump’s big claim

News Network

February 1,2026

US President Donald Trump on Saturday claimed that the government of India led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made a deal to buy Venezuelan oil, as opposed to purchasing it from Iran.

"We've already made that deal, the concept of the deal," he told reporters on Air Force One.

Trump had imposed 25% tariffs on countries buying Venezuelan oil, including India, in March 2025. He had also hit India with tariffs for buying Russian oil, saying it was "funding" President Vladimir Putin's war against Ukraine.

Trump has said that the US has taken control of the oil-rich Venezuela after capturing former President Nicolas Maduro in January.

A fleet of 18 ships loaded with crude oil bound for refineries in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi in January, the most since December 2024, according to a report by the news agency Bloomberg.

Combined crude deliveries to the US will reach about 2,75,000 barrels a day, more than doubling volumes seen in December last year. Shipments to China, which averaged 4,00,000 barrels a day last year, fell to zero in January.

PM Modi, Venezuelan President Agree To Expand Ties

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodriguez spoke on Friday and agreed to take the bilateral relations to "new heights" in the years ahead.

It was the first phone call between the two leaders since the capture of Maduro and his wife by the US on January 3.

"Spoke with Acting President of Venezuela, Ms. Delcy Rodriguez. We agreed to further deepen and expand our bilateral partnership in all areas, with a shared vision of taking India-Venezuela relations to new heights in the years ahead," PM Modi said in a post on X.

A statement from Prime Minister Modi's office said the two leaders agreed to further expand and deepen the India-Venezuela partnership in all areas, including trade and investment, energy, digital technology, health, agriculture, and people-to-people ties.

They exchanged views on various regional and global issues of mutual interest and underscored the importance of their close cooperation for the Global South, the statement said.

Rodriguez also said that they discussed partnerships in the fields of agriculture, science and technology, mining, and tourism, as well as the pharmaceutical and automotive industries.

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