On November 19 last, Telugu Desam Party president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu took a vow not to enter the state legislative assembly as long as YSR Congress party led by chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy is in power.
He broke down before the media for allegedly being heckled and humiliated by the YSRC members in the assembly and declared that he would enter the assembly only the capacity of the chief minister.
As vowed, he did not attend the budget session of the state assembly held in February/March this year.
But after a gap of nearly eight months, the TDP chief will step into the assembly premises, if not the House, on July 18 to exercise his vote in the Presidential elections to be held on the party.
Though Naidu did not make any formal announcement, his party MLAs and MPs are expected to vote for BJP’s tribal woman candidate Droupadi Murmu in the Presidential elections, as he was not consulted by the other opposition parties which fielded Yashwant Sinha. The YSRC has already declared its support to Murmu.
However, Naidu will stay away from the monsoon session of the state assembly commencing on the following day – July 19. The short session will go on till July 23. In the absence of Naidu, his party’s deputy floor leader K Atchannaidu will lead the party in the assembly.
The short session will also elect new deputy speaker of the assembly. Senior YSRC leader from Vizianagaram Kolagatla Veerabhadra Swamy has been announced as the new deputy speaker in place of outgoing candidate Kona Raghupathi.
