Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday asked the legislators of the ruling coalition not to take things easy as there is no opposition in the Assembly.
Without naming the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP), he said that the party which is in opposition is not feeling any responsibility. He asked the MLAs and MLCs of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), its allies Jana Sena Party (JSP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to function as representatives are answerable to the people.
YSRCP, which has only 11 MLAs in the 175-member Assembly, is not attending the ongoing Budget session as it has not been recognised as the main opposition party.
The Chief Minister was addressing a workshop for MLAs and MLCs, organised to help first-time legislators understand the State Budget and the proceedings.
“Assembly is a platform to explain to the people what the Government has done for them,” he said and added that the people always monitor what their MLA is doing for them and how their MLA is presenting their problems.
“People never accept if we use objectionable language and this is what has happened in the past five years,” remarked Naidu, who had stayed away from Assembly for two-and-half years during YSRCP rule after some members had humiliated him by making derogatory comments against his wife.
Maintaining that the MLAs should have awareness of the budget session of the State Legislature, the Chief Minister told the MLAs and MLCs to share their views with their colleagues on the floor of the House during the session.
Chandrababu Naidu told the MLAs and MLCs to study in detail all the bills being brought in and the policies being adopted by the State Government.
“Since people have reposed immense faith and have a lot of hopes on all of us, we should stand by them and discuss in detail on the floor of the House the problems being faced by them. The House should be a platform for meaningful debates,” Chandrababu told the legislators.
Recalling that he got elected to the Assembly for the first time in 1978 and became a minister in 1980, Chandrababu said that he was elected to the House for nine consecutive terms and became the Chief Minister for four terms.
“The success in a row depends totally on our performance and the structure of the party. In the recent elections, the TDP, the Jana Sena and the BJP contested together and many new faces have entered the Assembly, including 61 from the TDP, 15 from the Jana Sena, four each from the BJP and the YSRCP. At least 30 MLAs got elected to the House for the second term,” Chandrababu Naidu said.
“Once we used to discuss at length several issues on the floor of the House but now the MLAs are, somehow, losing interest to learn the relevant subjects which is not healthy,” the Chief Minister felt.
Chandrababu advised the MLAs to try to get themselves updated on all the subjects and cautioned them that he would continuously monitor the subjects that the MLAs were learning and the issues on which they were focussing.