TDP may decide to skip budget session

The issue of attending or boycotting the assembly session reportedly came up for discussion during a virtual meeting convened by TDP president and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu with senior party leaders on Thursday.

Hyderabad

former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu (HT Archives)

The Telugu Desam Party, the main opposition in Andhra Pradesh, is likely to boycott the budget session of the state legislative assembly, expected to commence on March 7, in protest against the alleged high-handed attitude of the ruling YSR Congress party, a party leader familiar with the development said.

The issue of attending or boycotting the assembly session reportedly came up for discussion during a virtual meeting convened by TDP president and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu with senior party leaders on Thursday.

“The leader of the opposition has already announced that he would not be attending the assembly for the entire term of the present government. With regard to other TDP MLAs, no final decision has been taken yet on whether they would attend the session,” senior TDP lawmaker and Public Accounts Committee chairman Payyavula Kesav told HT.

He said a decision in this regard would be taken at the TDP legislature party meeting to be held next week. The TDP with 23 MLAs is the only opposition party in the 175-member state assembly.

During the winter session of the AP assembly on November 19, Chandrababu Naidu announced that he won’t step into the assembly again for the rest of the term of the Jagan government, in protest against the alleged abusive comments made by some YSR Congress party MLAs against him and his wife Nara Bhuvaneshwari.

He walked out of the assembly with tears in his eyes and his party MLAs also stayed away from the winter session, which concluded on November 26.

Naidu, who broke down before the media later, said he would return to the state assembly only in the capacity of the chief minister, if the people blessed him with power in the next elections.

While Naidu would be staying away from the budget session, the other MLAs are divided in their opinion on attending the session.

A TDP leader, on condition of anonymity, said many of the MLAs reportedly favoured boycott of the assembly session, while a few others suggested that it would not be proper to boycott the entire budget session, saying the session would give an opportunity to the TDP to expose the financial mismanagement of the Jagan Mohan Reddy government in the state.

“Being a responsible opposition, it may not look appropriate to boycott the budget session. It also gives a wrong message to the people that the opposition party is scared of the ruling party,” the TDP leader said.

Secondly, the YSRC government is also likely to introduce the revised three capitals’ bill during the budget session, apart from many other crucial bills. “We will be giving up a golden opportunity to put forth our argument in favour of retaining the capital city at Amaravati,” he said.

However, some MLAs said the ruling party would hardly give any opportunity to the opposition to raise its voice on any issue. In any case, the YSRC has the majority both in the legislative assembly and council, so the government would certainly bulldoze the bills without giving any scope for discussion, they told Naidu.

The TDP president told them that a final call on attending or boycotting the session could be taken at the next week’s legislature party meeting.