Former chief minister and YSR Congress president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy is the only floor leader of the party and not the leader of opposition in the Assembly, said minister for finance and legislative affairs, Payyavula Keshav. Speaking to the media in Amaravati, Keshav found fault with Jagan Mohan Reddy for writing a letter to Assembly speaker Chintakayala Ayyannapathrudu seeking leader of opposition status for him.

Jagan Mohan Reddy said that there was no rule that a political party should get at least 10 percent of the Assembly seats to be recognized as the opposition party. He also quoted three incidents where the ruling parties have given leader of opposition to the other parties which did not get the 10 percent of the seats.

Minister Keshav said that Jagan Mohan Reddy himself had said that Chandrababu Naidu would lose the leader of opposition in the house if the ruling party attracted five MLAs from the TDP. The TDP had 23 MLAs and four MLAs have already crossed the fence during the YSR Congress regime. Thus, the TDP strength had come down to 19. One more MLA would be enough for the TDP to lose the opposition tag, Jagan Mohan Reddy said as the chief minister.

Keshav quoted this statement of Jagan Mohan Reddy and wondered how he had written the letter to the speaker. The rule book of the Assembly clearly speaks about the strength of a party to be named as opposition in the Assembly, he said.

He wondered whether his advisers had given him the advice to write to the Assembly speaker seeking opposition status. He said Jagan Mohan Reddy should stop taking advice from them as they have taken him to the present position from the post of the chief minister.

People have given Jagan Mohan Reddy just 11 Assembly seats believing that he would not fit even for the leader of the opposition. We respect peoples’ verdict and treat him as the floor leader of the YSR Congress in the Assembly, the Minister said.