YSR Congress party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, who has started the final battle against the Chandrababu Naidu government in Andhra Pradesh with his proposed padayatra from November 6, seems to have decided to bring pressure on Naidu from all sides.
As part of that, Jagan sought the intervention of President of India Ramnath Kovind in restoring the democracy in the state by getting the defected MLAs disqualified forthwith.
In his letter to the President on Friday, the YSRC president explained the circumstances that forced him and his party to boycott the forthcoming assembly sessions.
He said though Naidu had enjoyed full majority in the assembly, he had been openly indulging in unethical and unconstitutional practice of masterminding defections from the main and only opposition political party YSRCP with a view to demoralising the opposition.
“As many as 2L MLAs elected on our party tickets in 2014 elections and a MLC were lured into the TDP through various means.
We have filed several petitions before the assembly speaker and also council chairman requesting them to disqualify the defecting MLAs as per the provisions of the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution of India.
No action has been taken so far although more than one and half years have elapsed,” he complained.
He pointed out that the defected MLAs, whose names are still shown in the list of YSRCP MLAs, are not only allotted seats in the Assembly along with the ruling party MLAs but also given time to speak in the house without permission from the party to which they belong. And four of the defected MLAs were given berths in the Naidu cabinet against the rules.
Jagan went on to explain the financial mismanagement of the Naidu government and large scale corruption in various projects.
“Since we are questioning the government, our voice is being stifled in the assembly,” he alleged and added that that was precisely why his party decided to stay away from the assembly.
