YSRCP walks out of AP Assembly over denial of LoP status to Jagan

Amaravati: The MLAs and MLCs of YSRCP led by former Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy walked out of Governor S. Abdul Nazeer's address to the joint session of the State Legislative Assembly and Council here on Monday demanding Leader of Opposition status to the leader of their legislative party leader.

As soon as the Governor started addressing the budget session, Jagan and his party members raised slogans on the alleged failures of the TDP-led coalition government since it came to power in June and staged a walkout over denial of LoP status by the Governor and Speaker Ch. Ayyanna Patrudu.

TDP leaders said as a matter of formality, the YSRCP decided to attend the session for a few minutes to avoid the risk of getting disqualified for abstaining continuously for 60 days.

The YSRCP has been abstaining from the House sessions in the past demanding LoP status from Jagan. However, Speaker Patrudu as well as Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu have on multiple occasions bluntly declined the pleas for LoP status as the YSRCP lacked the strength--10% of the total number of Assembly members. YSRCP won in the general elections 11 seats out of 175 MLAs.

YSRCP contention is that to raise public issues effectively they need time to discuss in the House. "As we have polled 40% votes, we deserve recognition as the main Opposition. If our leader gets LoP status, we will get adequate time to participate in meaningful discussions in the House, which augurs well for the health of democracy," YSRCP's Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council Botcha Satyanarayana told the media after walking out of the House.

Jagan said the TDP was bent upon muzzling the voice of the Opposition after failing to keep Super Six Guarantees and provide Minimum Support Price to the tomato and chilli farmers. He alleged that the ruling coalition is afraid of exposure of its omissions and commissions if YSRCP is granted main Opposition status.

MLC and YSRCP women's wing president Varudu Kalyani said even if they are denied main Opposition status, they will expose the failures of the government before the public by taking up various programmes. She also criticised the denial of permission to certain TV channels for live-streaming of the budget session live.