YSRCP chief and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday requested Assembly Speaker C Ayyannapatrudu to recognise him as the Leader of Opposition and his party as the principal opposition party.

Reddy made this plea in a letter to the speaker.

“Law mandates that whichever party has the highest number of seats in the Opposition should be recognised as the principal Opposition,” Reddy said in the letter shared by YSRCP to PTI.

He claimed that no law states that 10 per cent seats are required to confer the principal opposition party status, and added that such a practice has not been followed in Parliament or the state’s assembly.

According to Reddy, making him take oath as a member of the assembly after the swearing-in of ministers recently was against tradition.

He alleged that the ruling NDA alliance of TDP, BJP and Janasena have already decided not to confer him the status of leader of the opposition.

“The ruling alliance and the speaker are already exhibiting enmity towards me. Videos of the speaker saying that I should be beaten to death went viral,” Reddy said. "In this backdrop, I don’t see the possibility of opening my mouth in the assembly. The recognition as principal opposition will only enable us to voice people’s problems in the house." The YSRCP chief requested the speaker to consider these circumstances and take a decision.

The YSRCP suffered a humiliating electoral debacle in the recent simultaneous polls, winning a paltry 11 assembly and four Lok Sabha seats.

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