YSRCP President and former chief minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy, who had been threatening that he would attend the legislative assembly sessions only if he was given the opposition leader status, has finally stepped forward. He has indicated to attend the budget sessions starting from Monday along with his MLAs.
They will all attend the Governor’s address in the assembly on the first day. It is known that Jagan’s party got 11 seats in the last assembly elections. Due to this, Jagan lost the opposition status. However, he has been insisting for opposition status and has even approached the High Court. Jagan and his party MLAs have not been going to the assembly since the new government was formed and he was sworn in in the assembly.
Earlier this month also he made it clear his determination to keep away from Assembly sessions. But, it seems he became scared after Speaker Chintakayala Ayyannapatrudu and Deputy Speaker Raghuramakrishna Raju officially clarified that if a member is absent from the assembly for 60 consecutive days without any reason or information, his membership will be cancelled.
Moreover, TDP leaders are also preparing for a by-election from Pulivendula constituency, represented by Jagan. This seems to have created fear of facing a by-election soon after and he unexpectedly backed down. YCP leaders are also worried over public sentiment against the party leadership for not attending assembly sessions.
Keeping in view the negative environment mounted with the decision of not attending assembly sessions, Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council, Botsa Satyanarayana, on Saturday suggested to Jagan to attend the assembly sessions. Jagan agreed to this.
However, it is not clear how long Jagan and his MLAs will attend the assembly sessions. After the Governor’s address in the assembly, the assembly will be adjourned for that day without any other business. It will meet again on Tuesday.
Will Jagan and the MLAs come only on the first day? Or will they continue until the budget sessions are completed? Meanwhile, the YSRCP is campaigning on social media to protest in the Legislative Assembly against the failure of Chandrababu Naidu in implementation of the Super Six promises made by the coalition government.