The AP assembly is losing it over a portrait of YSR

  For over two weeks, the YSR Congress and the TDP have been huffing and puffing, to bring the House down. All because of a missing portrait. But before you scoff, it was Y S Rajasekhara Reddy’s portrait. It all started in the last week of July. A life size portrait of the late Andhra Pradesh chief minister which was hung in the Assembly lounge went missing from its usual spot. The portrait was put up shortly after his death in office in 2009, after which K. Rosaiah took over as Chief Minister. After it was discovered that the portrait was missing (on July 25), the two parties have been making accusations against each other, writing letters to the Speaker and even calling a meeting of the Assembly’s Committee on General Purposes. The YSRCP cried foul as soon as word spread, and the TDP initially claimed that the frame of the portrait had become weak and looked like it could fall. “After getting it repaired we will again put up the portrait,” the AP Assembly secretary, K. Satyanarayana Rao told Deccan Chronicle. Things really started getting out of hand after that.  Senior Congress leader and MP KVP Ramchandra Rao wrote a letter to the AP Legislative Assembly Speaker Kodela Sivaprasad on July 28 requesting that YSR's portrait be reinstated. “I am devastated by the fact that YSR’s photo has been taken off the Assembly corridor. Late YSR has done enormous service to the people in various positions...I kindly request you to place it back” he wrote. This was followed by protests by the YSRCP in front of the AP Legislature Secretary’s office on the Assembly premises, followed by another letter from Jaganmohan Reddy to the chief minister and the Speaker. To display or not to display? More than a week into the ruckus, on August 7, AP finance minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu changed the party's stance and said that there was no actual tradition to keep photos of former chief ministers on the Assembly premises. He also questioned how a chief minister's portrait could replace that of a Speaker.  Two days later, the TDP's chief whip Kalva Srinivas claimed that certain protocols must be followed before hanging the photographs of political leaders and other important personalities in the Assembly's Committee Hall. He said that a special committee must be formed, views of all the political parties must be taken into consideration and finally the Speaker must take a decision. Tuesday saw a meeting of the Committee on General Purposes of the Legislative Assembly which discussed the issue at length and said that the practice of putting up portraits of former Chief Ministers would not set the right precedent. The YSRCP hit back and said that the 25-member panel had only three representatives from the main Opposition party in it and alleged that the meeting was held when the YSRC representatives were in New Delhi for a dharna. Where did the portrait actually go? The party has maintained that YSR's portrait was not removed but only "preserved" by officials, and a TDP party member who requested anonymity, confirmed this to TNM.  Here's the main theory: After bifurcation of the state, the Assembly lounge in the new building was allotted to AP Assembly. But apparently due to a space crunch, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu decided to conduct his party meetings in the lounge. However, his former political rival's face was reportedly always in front of him, which is why he may have gotten rid of it.