RRR shakes hand with Jagan, requests him not to skip House

Vijayawada: The state Assembly witnessed some interesting and curious moments minutes ahead of the arrival of the Governor S Abdul Nazeer who was to address the MLAs and MLCs as part of the customary joint address to both Houses.

The TDP MLA from Undi, K Raghurama Krishna Raju, who was arrested and tortured by police when he was the YSRCP MP and is fighting a legal battle against the former CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy suddenly got up from his seat walked across to Jagan, shook hands with him and said that he as floor leader of opposition party should attend the proceedings regularly.

Assembly without opposition will not be interesting. He also urged the legislative affairs minister Payyavula Keshav to allot a seat close to Jagan Mohan Reddy to which the minister responded positively.

This became a hot topic of discussion among all sections and everyone has been interpreting it as they like. Later, Raju stated that he was sitting next to BJP member Kamineni Srinivas in the row which was adjacent to the opposition benches. He said he saw Jagan walking in.

He said at that time he did not see him as a person who had got him tortured but felt as an ordinary MLA, he should ask opposition floor leader not to skip the proceedings. He added that legal battle against Jagan Mohan Reddy would continue that has nothing to do with his appeal.

He said he told Jagan that “status of leader of opposition was immaterial. You must come and attend the session. I have been saying this during media discussions and felt I should directly tell him.”

When asked what was Jagan’s reaction, he said there was no special expression in his face but he said, “Sure Anna, I will attend and you will see.”

On the issue of allotting a seat close to him, he said he felt that it would be advantageous for him to get up and counter Jagan and both could be in the same frame in live telecast. “That kick would be different,” he said.