VIJAYAWADA: Ahead of the commencement of the monsoon session of AP Legislative Assembly, YSR Congress MLAs shot off an open letter to Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday, expressing their willingness to attend the session if the Speaker disqualifies the 22 YSRC MLAs defected to the TDP.
Describing the House as a temple of democracy, the YSRC MLAs alleged that the TDP government converted it into a ‘Haunted House’ by poaching 22 MLAs in several phases from February 2016 to March 2017 and four of them were inducted into the State Cabinet. “At the behest of the TDP, the defected MLAs are attacking the YSRC by sitting in treasury benches.
Can anyone call it as Legislative Assembly. Was it not an assault on democracy?” asked the YSRC MLAs.Stating that they wrote the letter in response to the appeal made by Speaker Kodela Siva Prasad Rao to them to attend the Assembly session, they sought to know how could the Speaker, who delayed action against defected MLAs for years, speak about democracy.
Despite having the power to disqualify the turncoat MLAs, the Speaker was acting as a TDP activist, undermining the credibility of Assembly and Constitution, they said and made it clear that they would not attend such a House. In retaliation to the letter of YSRC MLAs, the 22 defected MLAs wrote an open letter to YSRC chief YS Jaganmohan Reddy stating that they came out of the party opposing his ‘feudal’ attitude and to support the endeavour of CM Naidu for developing the State on all fronts.