YSR Congress to boycott AP Assembly's session next month

The opposition YSR Congress has decided to boycott the forthcoming session of the Andhra Pradesh Assembly demanding that the 20 MLAs, who crossed over from its fold to the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP), be disqualified forthwith.

The YSRC also demanded that four of those who switched sides and were made cabinet ministers, be dismissed from the government immediately."We can't sit (in the Assembly) with our heads bowed when a mockery is being made of democracy. Hence, we have decided to boycott the Assembly session, that is expected to begin on November 10," YSRC Legislature Party's deputy leader Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy said today.

"We will not attend the legislature till the MLAs who defected to the TDP are disqualified," he said.The YSRC Legislature Party today held a meeting under the chairmanship of Leader of Opposition in AP



Assembly, Y S Jaganmohan Reddy.

"A latest bulletin issued by the Assembly said the YSRC has 66 MLAs. Even four ministers were listed as members of YSRC. Are we part of a coalition government?" Ramachandra Reddy wondered.

"They are making a complete mockery of democracy by not taking any action against the 20 MLAs in the last one-and-a-half year. We will petition the country's president, the prime minister and the state governor over this," he said.

The YSRC initially had 67 MLAs in the present 176-member Andhra Pradesh Assembly.

However, as many as 21 of the legislators switched over to the ruling party since February 2016. One of them died of heart attack early this year.Four of those who crossed over were inducted into Chandrababu Naidu's cabinet in April this year.