VIJAYAWADA: The first session of the AP Legislative Assembly after the formation of the Jagan Mohan Reddy government will commence at 11.05 a.m Wednesday. Protem Speaker Sambangi China Appala Naidu will administer oath to the newly-elected members.
The new Assembly came into being last month after the general elections. The YSR Congress won 151 of the total 175 seats in the House.
The Telugu Desam Party, (TDP), which was in power last time, had to be content with just 23 MLAs now. The Jana Sena, which made electoral debut, won one seat.
The session will be held for five working days.
Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy will take oath first followed by N Chandrababu Naidu, who has been elected leader of Telugu Desam Legislature Party (TDLP). Naidu will become the Leader of the Opposition. Later, all the remaining members will take oath.
On June 13, the Assembly will formally elect senior legislator Tammineni Sitaram from Srikakulam as the Speaker of the House.
Governor E S L Narasimhan will address the joint Session of the Assembly and Council on June 14. While June 15 and 16 are holidays, the members will speak on the motion of thanks to the Governor’s address on June 17 and 18. Meanwhile, G Srikanth Reddy, who has been appointed Government Chief Whip in the Assembly, said that the government is committed to running the Assembly in a democratic manner.
“Unlike the previous government and former Speaker, we will conduct the session of the Legislative Assembly in a dignified manner,” he said, taking a dig at the TDP. “We will respect the Opposition and give enough opportunity to speak in the House. Of course, the previous government violated the rights of the Opposition and even made a mockery of democracy by ridiculing the Opposition parties in the House without allocating proper chambers. But, our government will give equal priority to all parties,’’ he maintained.
It may be recalled that the YSRC, when in Opposition, had boycotted the Assembly since the winter session in 2017. The boycott was to protest against inaction of the Speaker against 23 YSRC MLAs who had “defected” to the TDP.
Five-day session
June 12: Oath of office of all elected members
June 13: Assembly to formally elect Tammineni Sitaram from Srikakulam as Speaker
June 14: Governor E S L Narasimhan to address joint session of Assembly and Council