In a remarkable, yet inevitable decision, Andhra Pradesh Assembly Speaker Nadendla Manohar, late on Friday night, disqualified 16 Congress MLAs from their membership of the House and accepted the resignation of Sobha Nagireddy, the Praja Rajyam rebel MLA.
All the disqualified MLAs had violated the party whip and voted in favour of the no confidence motion that was brought by the Telugu Desam party on December 5, 2011. They are all loyalists of Kadapa MP Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy.
The Speaker’s action was expected as he had no option put to axe the members as per 2(1) (A) and (B) of the 10th schedule of the Constitution. Though a petition for disqualification of the membership of Ms Nagireddy was also filed by the Praja Rajyam party, the Speaker, fearing a legal problem since the merger of the Praja Rajyam Legislature Party with the Congress Legislature Party is still under consideration, thought it better to accept her resignation.
The Speaker had completed all the necessary formalities by hearing both the sides on February 2.