As YSRC set to sway it, Legislative Council may carry on

VIJAYAWADA: The era of YSR Congress is going to start in AP Legislative Council for the first time. As it is set to grab majority in the 58-member Council soon, the party seems to have given up its insistence on its abolition.

Faced with humiliation in the TD-dominated House in respect of the passage of various bills, the government had sought its abolition through a unanimous resolution in the Assembly on January 27, 2020. Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy would remind the Centre of the issue during his visits to Delhi.

But, during his just-concluded visit to Delhi, the CM did not urge the Centre to cooperate for the Council abolition. Barring this, he pleaded for Centre’s help in all key issues such as the three capitals, Polavaram, special category status. It appears the CM has decided on the continuation of the Council. His recent action also lends credence to this view. He selected Moshen Raju, Lella Appi Reddy, R.V. Ramesh Yadav and Thota Trimurthulu for the recently vacated four MLC posts under the Governor’s quota. The ruling party leaders take it as a clear sign towards the continuation of the Council.

The total MLC seats in the AP Legislative Council is 58 in which opposition TD has 22 MLCs, YSRC 13, PDF 4, BJP 1, independents 4 and nominated 8. There are six vacant MLC posts that would be grabbed by YSRC and another 10 MLCs are going to retire on June 18. Among them, nine belong to TD and the other is Ummareddy Venkateswarlu of YSRC. The ruling party would get all 16 MLC seats which would give it a majority in the Council. TD would be limited to a dozen seats.

Earlier in January 2020, the Jagan government faced humiliation in the AP Legislative Council when the AP Decentralization and Inclusive Development of All Regions Bill, 2020 and APCRDA (Repeal) failed to pass due to severe opposition from TD and both the bills were referred to the select committee by TD. The ruling party which had only nine MLCs was greatly upset. The CM decided to abolish the Council and AP Assembly on January 27, 2020, unanimously passed a resolution, requesting the Centre for abolition of the Council.

YSRC allocated the Assembly Speaker post to BCs. As such, it may now consider Council Chairman post for either minorities or SC community as part of social engineering concept which gave big success to YSRC during elections by way of preference to BCs, SC, minorities and other backward castes. Earlier TD gave the Chairman post to M.A. Sharif before elections to appease minorities, but they supported YSRC. So, the ruling party may appoint retired IPS officer and MLC Shaik Mohammed Iqbal as the Council Chairman.

There is another speculation. SCs are also die-hard supporters of YSRC hence they too stand a good chance. If Jagan Mohan Reddy wants to give the post to SCs, then MLC Dokka Manikyavaraprasad Rao or Moshen Raju would be chosen. Sources also informed that as Kapus also hugely supported YSRC, even neglecting Jana Sena Party, there are bright chances of re-electing Ummareddy Venkateswarlu belong to the Kapu community as an MLC and further offering the Deputy Chairman of the Council post for Kapus as part of social engineering.