After a prolonged absence of a year, former Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy briefly attended the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday before the YSRCP MLAs staged a walkout in protest against Governor Abdul Nazeer’s address at the beginning of the Budget session. The Opposition MLAs repeatedly interrupted his speech by resorting to sloganeering and calling the NDA government “a band of thieves.”
Later, the Business Advisory Committee decided that the state Budget would be placed before the House on 14 February.
YSRCP chief YS Jagan Mohan returned to the Assembly after a year. As the governor began to address the members of the Assembly and Legislative Council during its joint sitting, the Opposition MLAs started interrupting him repeatedly, raising slogans. At 10:10, just ten minutes after the address began, the MLAs led by Reddy staged a walkout.
The former chief minister has not been attending the Assembly after the ruling party denied him the status of leader of the Opposition after YSRCP won only 11 seats in the Assembly. The YSRCP also dismissed the governor’s speech as a compilation of reports of the “yellow media”, a reference to those media houses considered to be close to the ruling TDP.
The governor, in his speech, blamed the previous YSRCP government for slowing down the progress of the state between 2019 and 2024, particularly in key sectors such as infrastructure, power and irrigation. He said they left behind a financial and administrative mess. Amaravati was being rebuilt with renewed momentum with support from the central government. “In a significant step towards long-term certainty, the Union government has initiated the process to introduce legislation to accord statutory status to Amaravati as the permanent capital of Andhra Pradesh,” he added.
The governor further stated, “As per the First Advance estimates for 2025-26, AP’s GSDP has increased to Rs17.62 lakh crore from Rs15.91 lakh crore in the previous year, recording a nominal growth of 10.75 per cent. Per capita income has risen to Rs2.95 lakh compared to Rs2.66 lakh last year. The growth has been driven by strong performance in agriculture and allied sectors at 7.83 per cent, industry sector at 9.53 per cent and services sector at 12.94 per cent.”