Holding placards and raising slogans of ‘Bye Bye Jagan’, MLAs of the opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in Andhra Pradesh took out a rally to reach Assembly building for the budget session, which began on Monday.
Holding a banner and carrying placards, the TDP MLAs marched to the Assembly. The legislators, who were raising slogans, were led by TDP’s state unit president Kinjerapu Atchen Naidu.
Through the placards, the TDP MLAs tried to highlight the unfulfilled promises of the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) government. They read “Where is special category status? “Have you completed Polavaram?” “Where is the Kadapa steel plant?”.
When the rally reached the Assembly gate, it was stopped by the police. The TDP MLAs raised their objection to the police action, leading to a heated argument. The legislators later attended the session.
The MLAs included actor N. Balakrishna, who is brother-in-law of TDP president and former chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.
Naidu, who is the leader of opposition, has not been attending Assembly session since 2021. Hurt over the alleged insult to his wife from some of the YSRCP legislators, he had vowed not to attend the sessions as long as the YSRCP rule continued.
Naidu, who had termed the present Assembly as a Kaurava Sabha, vowed to return to the Assembly only after winning the next elections and returning to power.
The budget session began with Governor S. Abdul Nazeer’s address to the joint session of the Assembly and Council. It is likely to be the last session of the present Assembly.
Simultaneous elections to the state Assembly and Lok Sabha are slated to be held in the next couple of months.
YSRCP stormed to power in 2019 bagging 151 seats in the 175-member Assembly. It had also won 22 out of 25 Lok Sabha seats.