AP legislature monsoon session begins tomorrow

The monsoon session of the Andhra Pradesh legislature begins here Thursday amid indications that it could be the last regular session before the state heads for elections in April-May next year.

Assembly Speaker Kodela Sivaprasada Rao said Wednesday that the session might run for 7-8 working days and could be extended.

"We may have a brief four-day session ahead of the vote-on-account Budget next March. But this will be the only full-fledged session and peoples eyes will be on it," he told reporters here.

The main opposition YSR Congress will continue its boycott of the Legislature during the monsoon session, over action against its MLAs who defected to the TDP, while the BJP, an erstwhile ally of ruling TDP, was expected to take on the government.

BJP has four members in the assembly and two in the Legislative Council.

YSRC MLAs shot off an open letter to Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu saying they were ready to attend the House if the Speaker disqualified 22 of the party MLAs who 'defected' to the TDP between February 2016 and March 2017.

This is the third consecutive session of the Legislature that the YSRC will be abstaining from, protesting the "inaction" of the Speaker on its plea for disqualifying the MLAs.

Referring to the Speakers appeal to attend the House, the YSRC legislators maintained that they were ready to take part but only if the 'defectors' were disqualified forthwith.