Botsa sacks 9 Jagan supporters
Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president Botsa Satyanarayana announced on Friday that he is expelling nine Congress legislators for their anti-party activities. Unmindful of the political repercussions, he said, “Those nine MLAs who sold themselves, who have no individuality and are indulging in anti-party activities, have been expelled from the party. I am not treating them as Congress MLAs any more. I do not even want to name them. It is up to the Assembly Speaker to take action,” Satyanarayana announced at a press conference at the party’s headquarters Gandhi Bhavan, on Friday afternoon.
In a house of 295, the Congress as 155 legislators, including those who have submitted their resignations. With Satyanarayana’s statement on Friday, the party’s strength has been reduced to 146, two short of a simple majority, making it technically a minority government.
However, there is no immediate threat to the Kiran Kumar Reddy government as the resignations of five Congress legislators who announced that they were joining the YSR Congress, have not been accepted yet. Another four legislators have only announced their intention to sail with YSRC chief and Kadapa MP Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and other parties, but have not resigned their membership so far.
The majority of a government can only be challenged by either Opposition members moving a no-confidence motion whenever the House is in session, or the CM moving a confidence motion, ostensibly at the instance of the Governor, in the event of some ruling party members quitting. In this case, neither of the two has happened. The state Assembly will meet for the Budget session from March 11.
Talking to this correspondent on the phone in the evening, the PCC president said he could not tolerate party MLAs indulging in anti-party activities.
“Some may call them Congress MLAs even now as per the rules, but as party chief, I feel they are not,” Satyanarayana said.
Botsa needs to inform Speaker about expulsion
Of the 155 Congress MLAs, the ones who have either resigned or announced their intention of joining other parties are: Sujaya Krishna Ranga Rao (Bobbili), Alla Nani (Eluru), Maddala Rajesh (Chintalapudi), Perni Nani (Machilipatnam), Dwarampudi Chandrasekhar Reddy (Kakinada City), Buchepalli Siva Prasad Reddy (Darsi), Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy (Punganuru), Gottipati Ravi Kumar (Addanki) and Komatireddy Venkata Reddy (Nalgonda).
If the Congress president officially informs the Assembly Speaker that certain MLAs have been expelled from the party, the Speaker in turn will declare those MLAs as “unattached” members of the House.
If there is a request to disqualify MLAs for anti-party activities, the Speaker must conduct an inquiry and can disqualify the legislators.
The Congress MLAs will continue in their posts if the resignations submitted to the Speaker not accepted yet.
Meanwhile, YSR Congress official spokes person Ambati Rambabu stated that the Congress government in the state has been reduced to a minority after the statement made by the Congress chief, and the party has no right to rule the state.
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