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Lalita Iyer
Lalita Iyer

ANDHRA PRADESH

YSRCP moves no confidence motion against TDP govt

PTI9_23_2013_000205B YSR Congress president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy | PTI

The main opposition party in Andhra Pradesh passed a no-confidence motion against the Telugu Desam Party government and it was taken up for discussion at the Assembly.

The no-trust move comes against the backdrop of a string of defections from YSRCP to the Telugu Desam, the ruling party. As many as eight legislators had recently quit YSRCP, headed by Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, and switched over to the ruling camp.

The no-confidence motion will not pose any threat to the stability of TDP government, headed by N. Chandrababu Naidu, as the ruling party has enough numbers in the House. The no-trust motion is seen as an attempt by the opposition party to build a strong legal case against its defectors and arrest further desertions from the party.

Amid heated argument between the treasury benches and the opposition, the Speaker K. Sivaprasada Rao allowed the debate and fixed a time limit of seven hours. However, none of the eight defectors was present in the House when the debate was taken up.

“The TDP leadership has spent crores of rupees to lure our legislators into its camp. Is this democracy?” Jagan asked while speaking on the no-confidence motion.

He wanted all the defectors to quit their Assembly seats and seek fresh public mandate. “We are constrained to move the no-confidence motion because of the mockery of democracy. We are pained to see the attempts to annihilate the opposition,” the YSRCP leader said.

The deputy floor leader of YSRCP Jyothula Nehru earlier started the debate and accused the government of pursuing “anti-people policies, escalating corruption and failing to implement its poll promises”.

With the recent wave of defections, the strength of YSRCP in the 175-member AP Assembly has come down to 59 while the TDP's tally has risen to 110.

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