Chintakayala Ayyanna Patrudu to adorn seat of Speaker today

Vijayawada : The day two of Andhra Pradesh Assembly is going to witness a new precedent. New Speaker Chintakayala Ayyanna Patrudu, who has been elected unopposed, will be led to his seat by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and Deputy CM Pawan Kalyan. There will be no Leader of Opposition for the first time in the House. Normally, the practice is that along with the Chief Minister, either the Leader or Deputy Leader of the Opposition accompanies the Speaker to his podium. Though Jagan Mohan Reddy does not have the status of the Leader of Opposition as his party has only 11 members in the Assembly, one expected that he as leader of the YSRCP would be present in the House and would escort the Speaker to his podium.

The Speaker does not belong to any party. He is the custodian of the Assembly.

But it is learnt that Jagan Mohan Reddy has decided not to attend the Assembly on Saturday and instead would be going to Idupulapaya. This has invited criticism from several leaders, including the Left parties, in the state. If he had to go to Idupulapaya, he could have done so immediately after the Speaker’s election procedure was over, they commented.

Ayyanna Patrudu is among the oldest batch of TDP leaders who joined the party in 1982 and got elected as MLA seven times from Narsipatnam and as MP from Anakapalli once. He served as minister several times. He has rich experience as a legislator and minister.