The opposition YSR Congress Party stayed away from Andhra Pradesh assembly on Tuesday when it took up a resolution to condole the death of a sitting legislator, who defected to the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP).
The assembly adjourned for the day after paying tributes to Bhuma Nagi Reddy, a member from Nandyal in Kurnool district.
Bhuma Nagi Reddy, also a three-time MP, died of a cardiac arrest on Sunday.
The YSRCP said it stayed away to protest TDP’s action in denying him a cabinet berth after luring him to the party.
The opposition party alleged that Chief Minister and TDP President N Chandrababu Naidu betrayed Nagi Reddy after promising him a ministerial berth and this resulted in his “untimely” death.
YSRCP chief YS Jaganmohan Reddy said that they could not sit and condole Bhuma’s death with those who were responsible for it.
He alleged that TDP tried to politicise the condolence by bringing Bhuma’s daughter Akhila Priya to the assembly within 24 hours of his cremation.
Akhila Priya, who represents Allagadda constituency in Kurnool district, said she was pained that Jagan and his party members did not attend the house to participate in the condolence motion.
Bhuma Nagu Reddy had entered politics after his father was murdered in 1987, in an ongoing faction war. His brother had also died in 1991 due to a heart attack, following which he was elected as an MLA from Allagadda.
In fact, it was Reddy who was the TDP’s choice against former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao, during the 1996 elections, for the Nandyal constituency.
In 2008, the politician, along with his wife, quit the TDP after several stints as a legislator, and backed actor-turned-politician Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam Party.
Bhuma and his wife quit the PRP when it merged with the Congress, and joined the YSRCP, as they shared a long relationship with former Andhra CM YS Rajasekhara Reddy.
His wife, Shoba Reddy, died in an accident in 2014.
The MLA defected back to the TDP in February last year, along with Akhila Priya.
She was elected to the assembly as a YSRCP candidate in 2014, following the death of her mother Shobha Nagi Reddy in a road accident during the elections.
IANS inputs
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