Amaravati: YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) President and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy attended the Assembly briefly on the first day of the Budget session before leading a walkout of his party members.
Jagan Mohan Reddy was present in the house for about 11 minutes after the proceedings began with Governor S. Abdul Nazeer’s address to the joint session of the Assembly and the Council.
The YSRCP legislators tried to disrupt the Governor’s speech by raising slogans as they demanded recognition of their party as the main opposition.
The opposition MLAs were heard raising slogans of ‘Save democracy’. A few minutes later, YSRCP members, led by Jagan Mohan Reddy, walked out.
YSRCP leader in the Legislative Council Botcha Satyanarayana later told reporters that the TDP-led coalition government has no option other than conceding their demand for opposition party status to the YSRCP.
“A democracy cannot function without an opposition which is the voice of the people,” he said.
Jagan Mohan Reddy is believed to have attended the session on the advice of Constitutional experts following Deputy Speaker K. Raghu Rama Krishna Raju’s recent statement that if the former Chief Minister continues to remain absent from the House, he may be disqualified.
Citing Article 190 (4) of the Constitution, the Deputy Speaker said if a member does not attend the House for 60 days without taking permission, he will be disqualified.
Jagan Mohan Reddy has been demanding that he be recognised as the Leader of Opposition (LoP). He also approached the High Court seeking orders for the Speaker to recognise him as LoP.
The YSRCP had boycotted the Budget session held in November last year to protest against Speaker Ayyanna Patrudu for denying LoP status to Jagan Mohan Reddy.
Jagan Mohan Reddy justified the boycott with the argument that they would get the required time in the Assembly to raise people’s issues only when they were recognised as the main opposition. He accused the TDP-led coalition government of trying to suppress the opposition’s voice.
The only time the YSRCP attended the Assembly after losing power to the TDP-led coalition in June 2024 was to take oath as its member.
The YSRCP has only 11 members in the 175-member Assembly. The TDP, and its coalition partners the Jana Sena and the BJP, hold the rest of the seats.
Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and other leaders of the coalition argued that the norm required a party to have at least 10 per cent seats in the House for its leader to be qualified for the LoP post.
IANS
