Andhra Pradesh’s main opposition YSR Congress Party has urged President Ram Nath Kovind to intervene to put an end to what it calls mockery of democracy by the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP).

In a letter to the President, YSRCP president Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy said the opposition party decided not to attend legislature session till the Assembly Speaker and Council Chairman act on its demand to disqualify 22 legislators who defected from the YSRCP to the TDP.

The party is also demanding that four of the legislators inducted in the cabinet be sacked immediately.

Jaganmohan Reddy wrote that 21 MLAs and one MLC of YSRCP lured into defections to TDP either by offer of ministerial berths or by paying huge cash. He said the party filed several petitions before the Speaker and Chairman to disqualify them but no action was taken.

He said they brought Constitutional violation to the notice of all important Constitutional institutions but nothing happened.

He alleged that TDP was openly indulging in unethical and unconstitutional practice of masterminding defections from the main and only opposition party.

He also complained that proceedings of both the houses of the legislature were being conducted in undemocratic manner to stifle the voice of the opposition.

The YSRCP chief said the opposition was being subjected to intimidation, heckling and use of abusive language in the legislature.

He also alleged that the looting of resources by those in power and mismanagement had pushed the state into an irretrievable debt trap.