YSR Congress party president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday filed a petition in the state high court, seeking a direction to the state legislative assembly speaker to grant him leader of opposition status in the House.
In his petition, Jagan argued that any opposition party that had highest number of MLAs in the assembly after the ruling party was entitled for main opposition status and he will be designated as the leader of opposition.
“Since there is no other opposition party in the Andhra Pradesh assembly, except the YSRCP, it has to be given the main opposition status and accordingly, I should be given the leader of the opposition position,” he asserted.
Jagan alleged that the Andhra Pradesh assembly was not following the Parliamentary practices.
“Though I had written a letter to Speaker Ch Ayyanna Patrudu, there was no response from him,” he said.
On June 24, Jagan wrote a letter to the Speaker requesting him to recognise him as the leader of opposition and his party as the principal opposition party.
“Law mandates that whichever party has the highest number of seats in the opposition should be recognised as the principal opposition,” Jagan argued.
He claimed that no law states that 10 per cent seats are required to confer the principal opposition party status, and added that such a practice has not been followed in Parliament or the state's assembly.
According to Jagan, making him take oath as a member of the assembly after the swearing-in of ministers recently was against tradition.
He alleged that the ruling NDA alliance of TDP, BJP and Janasena have already decided not to confer him the status of leader of the opposition.
“The ruling alliance and the speaker are already exhibiting enmity towards me. Videos of the speaker saying that I should be beaten to death went viral,” Jagan said.
"In this backdrop, I don't see the possibility of opening my mouth in the assembly. The recognition as principal opposition will only enable us to voice people's problems in the house."
