The Kiran Kumar Reddy government has defeated a no-confidence motion moved against it by the Telugu Desam Party by a margin of 38 votes after a marathon 16-hour debate in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly.
While 122 MLAs voted in favour of the no-confidence motion last night, 160 voted against it and one legislator was neutral.
As many as 16 Congress MLAs also voted in favour of the motion. These MLAs have been sailing with YSR Congress of Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy for sometime now. One Congress MLA walked out of the House minutes before voting began.
One MLA each of TRS and MIM did not attend the House as they are outside the country.
The debate on the no-confidence motion over the plight of farmers in the state lasted a marathon 16 hours after which voting was taken up at 12.55 AM, and the head-count of MLAs were then taken.
The ruling party has 153 members in the 295-member House.
This was the ninth time that a no-confidence motion was moved against different governments in Andhra Pradesh's history. And all of them were defeated.
TDP president Chandrababu Naidu had moved a similar motion against the then Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy's government in 2008 and lost. This was the second time that his no-confidence motion was defeated.
Earlier on Monday, the debate on the no-confidence motion witnessed an acrimonious verbal duel between Reddy and Naidu who said the government has become a "big joke" in the public.
"Our no-confidence is not only against the chief minister but also on the ministers. This government has lost our confidence to rule," Naidu had remarked, prompting Kumar to retort: "We don’t need Chandrababu’s confidence.We have people’s confidence and hence are in power".
As the Leader of Opposition named the chief minister and made certain remarks about his administration, Reddy rose and said in an angry voice, "Let us settle the scores now," provoking an equal reaction from the former.
"My family (Kiran and his late father Amarnath Reddy) won 12 elections on behalf of the Congress since 1962.I have the support of MLAs and the grace of Sonia Gandhi. You back stabbed your own father-in-law to become the chief minister (in 1995)," the chief minister had retorted.