The former chief minister of the Andhra Pradesh YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has seen a steep downfall in his political career with his YCP being downsized to just 11 seats in the assembly. As a result, Jagan doesn't even have the opposition leader status. 

Agitated by this, Jagan asked the AP assembly speaker, Ayyannapatrudu to accord him the opposition status and wrote an elaborate letter to publicize the same. 

"There is no constitutional rule that a party must get 10% of the seats in the house to be identified as the opposition. Any single big party that is opposite to the ruling outfit must be considered the opposition party. I don't think the situation in the assembly permits my party to even open its mouth. So please accord us with the opposition party status" Jagan wrote in the letter.

Jagan ended the letter on a fiery note as he said there is a risk the ruling combine and the speaker, who wishes to see him dead, will not let him address the assembly. 

While Jagan immediately left the assembly after the opening oath-taking day, he has now called for opposition leader status. The real question is whether or not Jagan would actually come to the assembly even if given the opposition status, considering that he has just 10 MLAs in the house, excluding himself. Not being present and active in the assembly for the next five years could prove to be fatal for YCP and Jagan appears to be bothered about this.

In a historic turn of events, Jagan went from calling for 175/175 seats prior to the election, to asking the speaker for opposition leader status after the polls. Funny how politics work, indeed.