Whenever the Assembly is in session, the opposition gets a greater chance to represent the peoples’ issues and expose the government’s failures. In fact, the assembly session is a greater opportunity for the opposition to win the hearts of the people and thus get political advantage.

The opposition has to sit in the house, join the discussions and debates, and raise issues. While it is mandatory for the ruling party to hold the session once in six months, it comes handy for the opposition to use the opportunity.

However, it looked different in AP during the budget session. The ruling party had used the opportunity extremely well to its advantage to drive home its points and policies. Besides tabling the mandatory budget and getting its demand notes and appropriation bills passed, the Assembly met for 61 hours in 12 days.

The ruling party consumed the lion’s share of the time, while the opposition used the time only to raise slogans and get suspended from the House. The opposition could not grill the ruling party or the government either in the question hour or the zero hour, where it could get the opportunity.

The opposition was not present when the questions raised by their members were answered by the Ministers in the house. Thus, the TDP lost the opportunity to speak in the house and represent the peoples’ issues.

It is not good for the opposition to refrain from joining the debates in the house or miss the opportunity to put questions to the government in the question hour or raise issues during the zero hour. The hooch tragedy that the TDP took up during this session could have been handled better had the TDP members used the zero hour in any of these 12 days.