In a setback to former chief minister and YCP chief YS Jaganmohan Reddy, he was not only denied opposition status due to lack of required minimum number of MLAs, he was also denied first seat in the opposition block, allocated in the AP Assembly.
Seats have been allocated to members in the AP Assembly by Deputy Speaker Raghurama Raju. First, the Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister and ministers were allocated seats in the Treasury Bench. After that, the Chief Whip and Whips were allocated seats.
Now, a new twist has taken place in the allocation of seats to the YSRCP, the only party in the House that is not part of an alliance. Deputy Speaker Raghurama made an announcement while allocating seats to members in the AP Assembly.
In terms of seats allocated to the ruling coalition in the House, seats were allocated based on status. Seats were allocated to MLAs on the basis of seniority. While Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu was allocated seat number one, seat number 39 was finalized for Deputy CM Pawan Kalyan.
Now, the first seat in the first bench of the block designated for the opposition was allotted to former minister Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy. The second seat next to him was finalized for former CM Jagan. Two rows were allotted to ministers in the treasury benches.
The first row was allotted to seniors and the second row was allotted to juniors. There is sufficient seating for 225 MLAs in a total of 12 blocks in the Assembly. Now, an interesting discussion took place between the leaders in the Assembly lobby on the allocation of seats to senior members.
The ministers commented that senior members along with Ganta Srinivasa Rao could not attend the Assembly as they had to sit in the first row. There was an interesting discussion among the members on the seat allocation for Jagan.
Seats were allotted to 16 whips along with the chief whip behind Chandrababu’s seat. In Block-1 (A), the first row was allotted to Dhulipalla Narendra Kumar, Varadarajulu Reddy and Ganta Srinivasa Rao, while six other MLAs got seats in the remaining two rows. It was clarified that these seats were allotted based on the seniority of the members. Meanwhile, the YSRCP, which boycotted the assembly meetings, is attending the council.