YSR Congress' no-trust motion defeated; sparks fly in AP House

A motion of no-confidence, moved by Opposition YSR Congress, against the 21-month-old Chandrababu Naidu-led TDP-BJP coalition government in Andhra Pradesh was comprehensively defeated by a voice vote amid acrimonious scenes in the Legislative Assembly late tonight.
It was a disastrousshow in the 175-member House by the lone Opposition party as it faced a spirited onslaught from the Treasury benches as Leader of Opposition Y S Jaganmohan Reddy was pushed into a tight corner after he made certain disparaging remarks against the judiciary.
He also levelled a series of allegations of corruption against Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and his government, provoking the TDP-BJP combine to tear into the YSRC chief and put him in the dock.

"Jagan's uncalled for remarks on the judiciary are a blot on the Legislative Assembly. A culprit who is facing numerous criminal charges and facing courts is casting aspersions on the judicial system. I have not seen such a leader in 35 years of my political life," Naidu lamented.
Jagan also committed political harakiri by admitting that his party moved the no-confidence motion against the government only to get eight YSRC MLAs, who recently defected to the ruling TDP, disqualified, he said.
"You have lured and purchased eight of our 67 MLAs. You have no guts to make them resign and seek fresh elections. So we moved the no-confidence motion to get them disqualified," Jagan said, and claimed his party had "already issued" a whip to all its members (to vote for the motion).

"They (eight defectors) may have abstained from the House today but they should be disqualified as we have already issued a whip," the Opposition leader said.

The nearly nine-hour-long debate, in which only Jagan spoke on his party's behalf, saw tempers run high in the House as he made certain allegations against the government.
"News reports have appeared in 'Sakshi' newspaper," he pointed out, referring to what he called "solar scam", "thermal scam", (capital) "land scam", among others.
"Newspaper reports cannot be evidence. You have to prima facie establish guilt and produce necessary documentary evidence," Legislative Affairs Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu said.

Naidu spit fire at the Leader of Opposition for making "wild allegations".
"The House has to punish him if he cannot produce supporting evidence to his allegations. He should also tender an unconditional apology in the first place."
The YSRC chief demanded that the government order a CBI inquiry into the "20 allegations" he made but the Chief Minister turned the demand down.