At a time the Kishtwar riots were rocking the Lok Sabha, an actor-turned-TDP MP used his theatrical skills to good effect to draw attention towards the Seemandhra stir. Dr Siva Prasad, representing the Chittoor Lok Sabha seat in Andhra Pradesh, turned up in the House in the attire of Lord Krishna.

Prasad went on to do what he knows best, that is, playing to the gallery in typical filmy style. He described the five TDP MPs as the ‘Pandavas’ and claimed to have come to the House as their emissary to mediate with the ‘Kauravas’.

Amongst the five TDP MPs stalling the House proceedings to protest against the Congress party’s Telangana decision, it was Prasad’s ploy that took everyone by surprise. He belted classical poems and enacted the episode of Sri Krishna Raayabaaram from the Mahabharata.

Following the announcement made by the government for granting separate statehood to Telangana, both Houses of parliament have been disrupted several times over demands for a unified Andhra Pradesh.

While the TDP MPs kept the heat up for yet another day in the lower House, discussions on the Kishtwar riots and the solar scam dominated the proceedings with the opposition taking the ruling party to task. However, the entry of Prasad quickly lightened the mood of the House.

Reciting a poem from the mythology, customized to the present-day scenario, he appealed to Congress president Sonia Gandhi to retract her party’s decision for granting separate statehood to Telangana and ensure that the state did not turn into a cauldron. Addressing media persons later, the MP claimed that his novel protest won the appreciation from all the members.

While Prasad’s antics revved up the mood in the Lok Sabha, his TDP colleagues in the Rajya Sabha remained unrelenting throughout the day. As soon as the upper House assembled, the TDP members stormed into the well and gathered around the Speaker’s podium. Slogan-shouting by MPs including— Sujana Chowdary, C M Ramesh and Nandamuri Harikrishna went on for the entire day.