AP Cong cracks whip against its rebel MLAs

Hyderabad: After months of dilly-dallying, the Congress on Monday finally cracked the whip against its rebel MLAs in Andhra Pradesh.

Government whip Kondru Murali Mohan submitted a petition to Assembly Speaker Nadendla Manohar tonight seeking disqualification of 16 Congress MLAs who defied the party whip and voted against the Kiran Kumar Reddy government during the no-confidence motion tabled by TDP in the state Assembly on Monday last.

This is the first time in the state's political history that a ruling party is seeking disqualification of its own MLAs under the Anti-Defection Law.

The MLAs had been sailing with YSR Congress president and Kadapa MP YS Jaganmohan Reddy for over a year now.

Incidentally, the Congress "condoned" another MLA Putalapattu Ravi who abstained from voting on the no-confidence motion in violation of the whip.

Ravi, who hails from the Chief Minister's native Chittoor district, met the PCC leaders and explained the reasons for his abstention at the time of voting in the House. Satisfied with his version, the Congress decided to "condone" Ravi, who once displayed his loyalty to Jagan.

Ravi's case was intimated to the Speaker by the whip.

On the other hand, the Praja Rajyam Party that merged with the Congress had already petitioned the Speaker seeking disqualification of its MLA Sobha Nagi Reddy who too violated the whip and voted against the government. Sobha is related to Jagan and has been sailing with him along with her husband Bhuma Nagi Reddy.

The Congress was initially in a dilemma over axing the 16 rebel MLAs fearing by-elections even as Jagan openly threw a challenge at the ruling party to act against his loyalists.

However, Chief Minister Reddy was firm on acting against the MLAs and took up the issue with party supremo Sonia Gandhi during a meeting on December 10. She immediately gave her nod for the action but the local leadership took two days to complete necessary formalities.

The government whip held detailed talks with the chief minister this afternoon on the issue and also met the Speaker in the afternoon. The petition was finally prepared tonight and submitted to the Speaker.

The 16 MLAs, along with 12 others, submitted their resignation to the Congress as well as the Assembly membership in August protesting the inclusion of late chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy's name in the CBI FIR in the case against Jagan.

However, 12 MLAs retracted and requested the Speaker not to accept their resignations even as the Congress did not spare any effort to attract them back into the party fold.

In the final count, only 16 MLAs stayed put in the Jagan camp and voted against the government during the no-confidence motion.

The MLAs against whom the Congress sought disqualification were: Balineni Srinivasa Reddy, Pilli Subhash Chandra Bose, Konda Surekha (all former ministers), Mekapati Chandrasekhar Reddy (brother of Nellore MP Rajamohan Reddy), Dharmana Krishna Das (brother of state R&B Minister Dharmana Prasada Rao), M Sucharita, Amarnatha Reddy, T Balaraju, G Babu Rao, G Srikanth Reddy, Kapu Ramachandra Reddy, Srinivasulu, Prasada Raju, Gurunath Reddy, Chennakesava Reddy and P Ramakrishna Reddy.

Only Konda Surekha hails from Telangana region while the others belong to Andhra and Rayalaseema regions.

As per procedure, the Speaker has to issue notices to the MLAs against whom the petition was filed and seek their version before taking a final decision. The PRP MLA was given time till December 19 to present her case. It is expected that the Congress rebels too will get enough time to present their case.

By-elections become inevitable to the 17 seats if all these rebel MLAs are disqualified as per the Schedule 10 2 (1) (b) of the Constitution, Legislature sources say.

Already, seven seats are vacant in the 294-member AP Assembly and in the event of disqualification of 17 MLAs the number of vacancies will rise to 24.