Hyderabad: As former chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy and his 10 YSRCP MLAs continue to boycott Andhra Pradesh assembly proceedings, CM Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leaders have sought the disqualification of these legislators by amending the rules.
Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh Congress chief and Jagan’s sister Y. S. Sharmila has demanded her brother’s resignation in case “the YSRCP chief lacks the boldness to attend the assembly session and question the NDA government’s anti-people policies”.
The YSRCP, the only party on the opposition side in the House, has been seeking the Leader of Opposition (LoP) post for Jagan. The matter is also before the Andhra Pradesh High Court, the YSRCP sought directions to Speaker Ch Ayyanna Patrudu to recognise Jagan as the LoP.
Ahead of the budget session that began Monday, the YSRCP chief stated that their attendance will be of little use, while accusing the Chandrababu Naidu-led dispensation of trying to suppress the Opposition’s voice.
In the 175-seat AP assembly, the NDA parties — TDP, JSP (JanaSena Party) and BJP — together account for 164 seats. In the May assembly polls, Jagan’s YSRCP came down to 11 MLAs from its earlier aggressive strength of 151.
The ruling combine’s argument, including that of CM Naidu’s, against according opposition party status to YSRCP is the norm requiring a party to have at least 10 percent seats in the House for its leader to be qualified for the LoP post. Under this, Jagan falls short by seven MLAs.
“When a party wins 10 percent of the seats in polls, it will get the opposition status. Like the party/combine gaining majority forms the government,” Naidu said in the House Thursday, taking a swipe at Jagan “insisting on LOP status in order to attend the proceedings”.
Till now, in the 16th AP assembly formed after the polls earlier this year, Jagan has appeared once, briefly, to take oath as the Pulivendula MLA. The assembly now is in its second session, convened till 22 November. However, YSRCP MLCs are attending meetings at the legislative council, where the opposition party is in the majority.
“I have never seen a leader like Jagan Mohan Reddy. Dictating terms and demanding positions will not work in democracy,” Chandrababu further said in the assembly.
On Friday, the last day of discussion on the first full budget of the new government, the TDP upped the ante over the issue. Senior TDP legislator Somireddy Chandra Mohan Reddy asked the House and Speaker to act against the abstaining MLAs, “in order to disqualify them”.
“Why are these 11 members not attending the session? A student absent even for four days in school is reprimanded by the headmaster. If such a student refuses to appear for quarterly, half yearly and even annual (exams), what is the action taken? He is debarred, right?” Somireddy asked in the assembly.
The former minister mentioned The Representation of the People Act, “public money spent by the CEC on polls”, adding that the MLAs were sent by their constituencies’ voters to the assembly to make laws, work for them and the state.
“But these (YSRCP) MLAs are refusing to fulfil their duties and are sitting at home. In such a situation, you, the chair, should take some action, right? Like suspending them,” Somireddy said, addressing the Speaker.
“What next now? Do those constituencies need representation here in the assembly or not? We need to modify the laws to see that such disrespectful members are removed from the House. We have that responsibility (towards the public). You should consider removing the (absentee YSRCP legislators),” he appealed.
A former secretary of the AP legislature, speaking to ThePrint, cited Article 190 of the Constitution, according to which, if a member of a state assembly is absent from all meetings for 60 days without the permission of the House, their seat can be declared vacant. However, this is “provided that in computing the said period of sixty days no account shall be taken of any period during which the House is prorogued or is adjourned for more than four consecutive days”.
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Peculiar trend in AP assembly
The Andhra Pradesh assembly has witnessed a peculiar trend since the 2014-19 term—after the bifurcation—where the leader of the opposition side boycotted House proceedings for a prolonged period of over two years.
Jagan, who was LoP during Naidu’s previous term, boycotted the assembly for around two years—from mid-2017, till he became the CM in mid-2019. The YSRCP chief’s grievance was the then Speaker Kodela Siva Prasada Rao’s alleged inaction, under the anti-defection law, on the 20-odd MLAs who crossed over to the ruling side.
Jagan went on a statewide padayatra instead to connect with the voters, for the 2019 polls.
Naidu did it too, when Jagan was the CM from 2019 to this year before the assembly polls.
On 19 November 2021, Naidu had walked out of the AP assembly alleging that the YSRCP MLAs were dragging his wife (entrepreneur Nara Bhuvaneshwari) into political muck, attempting to assassinate her character. At a press conference telecast live on Telugu news channels later that same day, the TDP chief broke down, saying he was deeply hurt by the ruling party’s continuous targeting of his family. Naidu had famously vowed to re-enter the House as the CM, which he did in June.
YSRCP leaders have ridiculed Somireddy’s demand to disqualify their MLAs, saying that going by the same yardstick, Chandrababu Naidu should have been disqualified long ago.
“There are instances in the past too, of leaders like NT Rama Rao, J Jayalalithaa boycotting the assembly. Were they disqualified? Naidu and his men think they can do anything, as they have the brute majority in the House,” Ambati Rambabu, a former minister in the YSRCP government, told ThePrint.
“Is there a clearly defined rule of 10 percent seats for opposition leader status? The denial is just to humiliate Jagan,” Ambati added.
‘People didn’t vote for you to sit at home’—Sharmila to Jagan
Meanwhile, Sharmila Thursday castigated her brother Jagan for not attending assembly sessions, having bagged about 40 percent of the vote share in this year’s assembly polls.
The AP Congress chief was reacting to Jagan’s refusal, during his press conference Wednesday, to react to remarks by “people, party with an insignificant 1.7 percent vote share”.
“When you are not attending the House, there is not much difference between you and us,” said Sharmila in an X post Thursday, accusing Jagan of turning the YSRCP into an insignificant party with his decision.
“People voted not for you to sit at home or speak in front of your own mics. Show your commitment by questioning the government in the assembly over anti-public matters. If you lack those guts, please resign,” she added.
Sharmila was apparently referring to Jagan’s earlier statement that he would continue to question the government and raise public issues through the media. The former CM addressed a press conference Wednesday at his party office, where he spoke for around two hours criticising the NDA government’s budget, and accusing CM Naidu of defaulting on his poll promises.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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