Hyderabad: Acting against rebel legislators, the Andhra Pradesh speaker yesterday disqualified 15 members of the legislative assembly belonging to the ruling Congress and the main opposition TDP for violating party whips.
Speaker N Manohar, who heard petitions moved by the two parties during the past few weeks, announced his decision last evening. Nine of those disqualified belong to the Congress and the six others are members of Telugu Desam Party (TDP).
The speaker took the action under Rule 2 (1) (b) of the Tenth Schedule of the constitution for voting against the party whip.
The disqualifications have brought down the strength of Congress to 146 in the 294-member house. However, with 16 vacancies in the house, the Congress government is in a comfortable position.
The ruling party needs 140 members to achieve majority, with the effective strength of the house being 278. With less than a year to go for assembly polls, by-elections to the vacant seats are unlikely.
The nine Congress lawmakers disqualified are: Alla Nani, G Ravi Kumar, D Chandrasekara Reddy, Jogi Ramesh, Perni Nani, B Sivaprasada Reddy, M Rajesh, S Krishna Ranga Rao and P Ramchandra Reddy.
The disqualified TDP rebels are: Amarnath Reddy, Praveen Kumar Reddy, Y Balanagi Reddy, Kodali Srivenkateswara Rao, Taneti Vanitha and P Sairaj.
The two parties had sought disqualification of nine legislators each for violating party whips during voting on a no-confidence motion moved by Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) against the government in March.
The legislators, most of whom have switched loyalties to the YSR Congress party, supported the no-trust motion.
The TDP had issued a whip to its legislators to remain neutral during the voting.
The speaker has not taken a decision on disqualification of three TDP legislators — Chinnam Ramakotaiah, K Harishwar Reddy and S Venugopalachari. During the hearing, they told the speaker that they did not receive the party whip.
The speaker disqualified the legislators two days before the second phase of the budget session, beginning tomorrow.
The speaker said a TDP petition for disqualification of another rebel, Gangula Kamlakar, was pending. The opposition party submitted the petition three days ago. Kamlakar recently joined TRS.
The number of legislators disqualified in the present assembly has now gone up to 34, which is a record in the state’s history.
With the latest disqualifications, the strength of TDP in the house has come down to 79. The TRS and the YSR Congress have 17 seats each, Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen seven, Communist Party of India four, Bharatiya Janata Party three, Communist Party of India-Marxist one and Lok Satta one. There are three independents.
IANS
