Hyderabad: K Chandrasekhar Rao in Telangana and Jagan Mohan Reddy in Andhra Pradesh have several aspects in common. Both are powerful regional satraps, former chief ministers who ruled their respective states with total authority when in power.
Now, out of power, the two leaders are walking the same path, avoiding the road to the assembly, refusing to face their political opponents now in position of dominance.
The Telangana legislature assembly session was adjourned sine die on Thursday, approving the budget 2024-25, while the Andhra Pradesh legislature also did so last week.
The Telangana assembly session was for 11 days, clocking 97 hours 32 minutes in session, while Andhra Pradesh assembly sat for 15 days, clocking 85 hours, and 52 minutes.
KCR, as the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) chief is popularly known, though he is not making public appearances now, attended the session only once—the first day when governor Jishnu Dev Varma delivered his address to the joint session of the bicameral legislature in Telangana.
It marked KCR’s, the Leader of Opposition (LoP), attendance in the House after a gap of six months. His last visit was once in July when Telangana budget 2024-25 was presented, post general elections.
Thus, besides the day he took oath as Gajwel MLA in February 2024, KCR has only appeared two days in the House since he stepped down as CM in December 2023.
In neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, it’s the same story, with a twist. Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) chief Jagan has attended the present assembly only once, apart from the day he took oath as Pulivendula MLA in mid-2024, since he lost power.
Jagan made a brief appearance in the assembly on 24 February, when Governor Abdul Nazeer delivered his address on occasion of the beginning of the budget session.
The YSRCP legislators raised slogans like ‘save democracy’ and ‘we want justice’ as they pressed on for the LoP status. Jagan exited the House within a few minutes after his MLAs gathered around the Speaker’s podium in protest for a while.
While KCR is the LoP with a room with his name plate allotted in the assembly but not attending the House, in Andhra Pradesh, YSRCP, the only party on the opposition side, has been seeking the same status for its leader Jagan.
The matter also went before the Andhra Pradesh High Court as the YSRCP sought directions to Speaker Ch Ayyanna Patrudu to recognize Jagan as the opposition leader in the assembly.
The YSRCP chief states that their attendance will be of little utility, while accusing the Chandrababu Naidu-led dispensation of trying to suppress the opposition voice.
In the 175 seat AP assembly, the NDA parties–TDP, JSP and BJP–now together occupy 164 seats. Jagan’s party is reduced to 11 seats, from its earlier aggressive strength of 151 MLAs.
The ruling combine’s argument, including that of Chief Minister Naidu, against according the opposition party status to YSRCP is the rule/practice requiring a party to have at least 10 percent seats in the House to be qualified for the position.
Jagan, who falls short by seven MLAs, contests the norm, rejecting the practice.
“The Naidu regime wants to treat me like just one MLA as LoP status means giving ample time for me to speak in the assembly. It is fearful of me exposing the government’s misdeeds, misrule and false election promises like Super Six,” Jagan told ThePrint in a conversation.
The cameo-like appearance of both KCR and Jagan once during the just concluded budget session, leaders of Congress in Telangana and NDA in Andhra say, was to avoid their disqualification as MLA.
Jagan’s one day attendance, along with his MLAs, came after speaker Ch Ayyanna Patrudu and deputy speaker K Raghu Rama Krishna Raju cautioned that MLAs not attending the House will risk disqualification.
Raju had said that MLAs continuously absent for 60 days from House proceedings would face disqualification under Article 190 (4) of the Constitution.
According to a former secretary of the AP legislature, Article 190 pertaining to disqualification of members of the state legislature states that “if for a period of sixty days a member of a House of the Legislature of a State is without permission of the House absent from all meetings thereof, the House may declare his seat vacant.”
However, “provided that in computing the said period of sixty days no account shall be taken of any period during which the House is prorogued or is adjourned for more than four consecutive days.”
Earlier in November, senior Telugu Desam Party (TDP) legislator Somireddy Chandra Mohan Reddy, while speaking in the assembly, asked the House and Speaker to act against the abstaining YSRCP MLAs, “in order to disqualify them and hold fresh polls as their constituencies are going without representation in the assembly”.
In Telangana, Congress cadres in KCR’s constituency Gajwel and elsewhere have been demanding his disqualification as MLA for not attending the assembly despite drawing hefty salaries from public paid taxes.
In February, Vijaypal Reddy of Federation of Farmers’ Associations filed a PIL urging the Telangana High Court to direct the assembly speaker, secretary to see that KCR attends the assembly regularly, fulfilling his duties or he be disqualified as MLA. The PIL also sought the court to direct BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao, commonly known as KTR, to nominate someone else as LoP in case of KCR’s continued avoidance of assembly.
Replying to the motion of thanks to the Governor’s address, CM Revanth Reddy said since December 2023, when the Congress government assumed office, KCR had drawn a salary of over Rs 57 lakh as an MLA and opposition leader, but attended the House only twice in 15 months.
Kunamneni Sambasiva Rao, the lone Communist Party of India (CPI) MLA in Telangana, told ThePrint that KCR, as a senior leader, should fulfil his duties and obligations as an MLA and opposition leader.
“Occasional presence could avoid disqualification, but what about the larger public, and local constituency issues?” Rao said as he hoped KCR changes his mind and attends the session from at-least next Monsoon session.
“The responsibility lies with the member and power with the speaker. If KCR continues to shun assembly, then the speaker will take appropriate action,” Jupally Krishna Rao, a senior Congress minister, told ThePrint on the last day of the budget session Thursday.
A BRS functionary says that KCR doesn’t want the face-to-face confrontational situation with Revanth Reddy, whose relentless diatribe has irked the BRS patriarch to no end.
“The first and two-term CM of Telangana, KCR, as he awaits the right time, opportunity to strike at Revanth, for now is unwilling to attend the house in a vulnerable position; he is not ready for any humiliations,” the BRS functionary adds.
BRS leaders have often termed Revanth’s stature as far below their leader’s. As the House and the state misses KCR’s captivating oratory that often turn caustic on opponents, the son-nephew duo KTR and Harish Rao are leading the opposition attack on Revanth’s Congress rule.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: Telangana caste survey: Amid BJP barbs, Piketty ‘happy to be part of effort to address inequalities’
