HYDERABAD: Obviously worried over the prospect of losing their membership of the House, all the MLAs (who are about 20 in number belonging to the ruling Congress, PRP and TDP) owing allegiance to YS Jagan Mohan Reddy took part in the speaker’s election on Saturday and followed the direction of their respective parties.This has come as a surprise to many since Jagan Mohan Reddy was closeted with them for hours the previous day and in the morning on the day of voting, and discussed with them what could be done to pull down the government. Since the agenda of the Assembly was only election of speaker and deputy speaker, the YSR Congress leader obviously saw an opportunity in it to find an escape from his public posturing that if the TDP moved a no-confidence motion, he would bring down the government.The MLAs loyal to him were advised to vote in accordance with the direction of their respective parties since their strength was not sufficient to defeat the Congress nominees and thus embarrass the Kiran Kumar Reddy government. The MLAs said that they would decide on pulling down the government as and when the motion was taken up.Party sources said YSR Congress’ lone legislator YS Vijayamma (Pulivendula) would serve a no-confidence notice against the Congress government if the main opposition party, TDP, failed to serve another notice in the next Assembly session which is likely to be held in another six months. Then 30 MLAs loyal to Jagan will support her notice for its admission by the speaker. YSR Congress party will prove its ‘strength’ then. They claimed that of the 158 MLAs who voted for Nadendla Manohar on Saturday, 72 were loyal to Jagan.“We (YSR Congress) are not seeking by-elections.Wet want general election to prove our strength across the state. As of now, the MLAs technically belong to the Congress, TDP and PRP and there is scope for disqualification if they go against the party’s whip by abstaining from the speaker’s election like Vijayamma did. Our goal is not speaker’s election but the no-confidence motion against the government”, a YSR Congress leader said.Meanwhile, YSR Congress spokesmen Jupudi Prabhakar Rao and Ambati Rambabu lashed out at Congress and TDP and accused them of collusion on the no-confidence issue. They said the TDP was not serious about the motion and the Congress brought in speaker’s election as part of the conspiracy. The TDP decided to give ‘life’ to the Congress government because it was afraid of a rout in case mid-term elections were held following government’s collapse.
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