How will Jagan face ‘Last Row’ embarrassment ?

Role reversal in politics is quite common because voters tend to change the fate of ruling and opposition parties if they feel dissatisfied. But, no one would have expected the outright decimation of YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSR Congress party in the recent assembly elections of Andhra Pradesh. The party which enjoyed absolute mandate of 153 seats in 2019 elections has now been relegated to just 11 seats.

While it is too early to assess if Jagan Mohan Reddy can bounce back strongly or not, the party will now have to overcome many challenges besides enduring so much of embarassment on various aspects to sustain in the next five years.

The first litmus test to Jagan and his party will be the today assembly sessions which are due for commencement shortly. Many are eagerly waiting to find out whether Jagan attends assembly or not after the humiliating defeat.

In a state assembly, it is quite a norm that the ruling party MLAs will be given top priority for everything starting from seating arrangement. The opposition party would be allotted a few seats in the opposite row of the ruling party and the remaining members will need to occupy the back seats.

As the main Opposition party during 2019-24, the Telugu Desam Party was allotted four seats in the front row and the next six rows of assembly to accommodate its 23 MLAs. The party was also a part of the assembly advisory committee because of its opposition status.

Now, the situation is not the same for YSRCP because it managed to win only 11 seats and lost the opposition status as well. It is now in the hands of the ruling party to decide the place of these 11 MLAs in the assembly. Moreover, YSRCP can retain the status of opposition if TDP wishes to do so.

But, as per reliable reports, the YSRCP won’t be accorded opposition status and all its MLAs including YS Jagan will have to sit in the back row. The party won’t even be a part of the business advisory committee also.

The question now is how YS Jagan reacts on ‘Last Row’ embarrassment. Will he attend the assembly sessions as a normal MLA and sit in the last row alloted to his party ? If he skips these sessions, how will he defend his decision is another important thing to watch out for in the days to come.

Close sources in YSRCP revealed that Jagan might not turn up for these sessions and entrust the legislative matters to senior leader Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy who is going to represent the party in the assembly.