Rare happenings seen in 12th Assembly

VV Balakrishna
HYDERABAD: First Published : 23 Dec 2008 08:53:01 AM

For the first time, after the enactment of the Anti-defection Act in the Parliament, three members of the 12th Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly have been disqualified by Speaker K R Suresh Reddy under the Act.

The Assembly has also witnessed some `rare happenings’.

Besides, disqualification of three TRS MLAs for defying party whip and supporting an independent candidate in the Legislative Council elections, the Assembly was witness to a majority of legislators resigning for various reasons. The Assembly also debated a no-trust motion against the Speaker for the first time. However, the no-trust motion moved by the TRS and TDP was defeated at a special session of the House. As far as legislators resignations are concerned, as many as 16 members of the Legislative Assembly belonging to TRS resigned paving way for the byelections.

The TRS members resigned at the directive from TRS leadership, which blamed the Congress for delay in carving out a separate Telangana state. TRS MLAs resigned and sought a fresh mandate only to expose the Congress. However, the TRS retained only seven out of 16 Assembly seats it held.

Meanwhile, several MLAs belonging to Congress, BJP and TDP resigned either to switch their loyalties to other parties or they were elected to the Lok Sabha.

Majority MLAs switching their loyalties was also a rarity in the present Assembly.

TDP deputy floor leader T Devender Goud (Medchel) submitted his resignation to float his own outfit Nava Telangana Party (NTP).

Congress MLA Gali Muddu Krishnama Naidu (Puttur) recently resigned to re-join the TDP. P Dorababu, a BJP MLA from Pithapuram, submitted his resignation on the floor of the House during the winter session of the Assembly to the Congress.

TDP MLA Ganta Srinivasa Rao (Chodavaram) resigned and joined PRP.

Though SV Subbareddy and G Veerasiva Reddy were more loyal to the Congress party, the TDP wanted the Speaker to disqualify Veerasiva Reddy for violating party whip during the vote on no-trust motion against the Speaker. Vijayawada East MLA Vangaveeti Radhakrishna (Cong) crossed over to to PRP.

He, however, did not submit his resignation till date but quit the Congress party.

TDP MLA E Dayakar Rao (Wardhannapet) and Congress MLA K Indrakaran Reddy (Nirmal) resigned after they were elected for Lok Sabha in the byelections.

In the latest incident, six TRS rebel MLAs submitted resignations to avoid disqualification.

Speaker accepted their resignations and disqualified another three rebel TRS MLAs. With this the vacant seats in Assembly rose to 18.