Resign if you have no courage to go to the Assembly: Sharmila to Jagan

Amaravati, Nov 8 (IANS) Congress' Andhra Pradesh President Y. S. Sharmila on Friday said that if YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) leader and former Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and his party MLAs have no courage to attend the Assembly, they should resign from it.

"Be it Jagan Mohan Reddy or YSRCP MLAs, if they have no courage to go to Assembly, they should resign," she said in her reaction to the decision by the YSRCP to boycott the Andhra Pradesh Assembly Budget session scheduled to start on November 11.

Talking to media persons on the sidelines of a programme at Machilipatnam, Sharmila, who is the sister of Jagan Mohan Reddy, wondered why one should hold positions if there is no courage to attend the Assembly session.

With 11 members in the 175-member Assembly, the YSRCP is the only opposition party. Its decision to boycott the Assembly session means the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will have no opposition in the House.

The NDA is headed by the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu. Jana Sena of Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are the other constituents of the ruling coalition.

The Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSRCP decided to stay away from the Assembly session as it has not been given the status of main opposition. The former Chief Minister said on Thursday that attending the Assembly session was of little use given the ruling coalition’s intention to suppress the Opposition voice.

"The coalition government doesn’t want the Opposition to discuss public issues. Hence, it is not ready to recognise the YSRCP as the Opposition party and its leader as the Leader of the Opposition," he said at a news conference.

Jagan Mohan Reddy said that the YSRCP MLAs will get a mere two minutes each, and in the absence of the Leader of the Opposition status, the required time will not be given to him to discuss public issues. "When they are not prepared to recognise us as the main opposition to deny mikes, what is the point in going to the Assembly? I will utilise the time due to me as Leader of Opposition by being the voice of the people through the media," he said.

--IANS

ms/vd