Issues of farmers, drought and power cuts are among the major topics to be debated by the Assembly, which begins a brief five-day winter session from Thursday.
The Opposition Telugu Desam Party, which has decided to give notice for no-confidence motion against the government on the first day, demanded a longer duration of the session at the business advisory committee convened on Wednesday by the Speaker, but in vain.
“We have decided to move the motion because of the all-round failure of the government in protecting the interests of farmers,” Payyavula Keshav, TDP legislator, informed the media. Senior TDP leader Ashok Gajapathi Raju criticised the government for not agreeing for a 15-day session stating there were many more people’s issues that warrant urgent attention of the government and a thorough discussion on the floor of the House.
Several issues outside the formal agenda are expected to be raised in the House with members of Opposition, particularly from the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) planning question on the continuing ambiguity over the demand for separate statehood for Telangana.
The decision to move no-confidence motion by the TDP comes in the wake of increased criticism against the party of soft-pedaling with respect to government and also against the backdrop of court-instituted CBI probe on party president and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
However, the issue of no-confidence notice is unlikely to be taken up on day one as the House is expected to confine itself to the discussion on condolence motion in memory of a sitting member who died recently.
The government is also unlikely to collapse even if the TDP succeeds in getting it enlisted and debated in the house as numbers are barely in their favour. The TDP's strength in the house has come down to 83 in the 294-member Assembly from 92 as 9 of them recently deserted the party .
However, parties such as the TRS, CPI, CPI(M) and the BJP have announced to support the TDP's move. But the party still needs to muster the support of another 25-odd members to outnumber the ruling party in the event of a division on the proposed motion to ensure the fall of government.
This is a remote possibility since the 28 MLAs, who openly sided with the YSR Congress party of Kadapa MP Jagan Mohan Reddy, have softened their stand towards chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy's government. And apparently there has been no strong effort visible on part of the YSR Congress leadership to get the Opposition hands strengthened at this point in time.
The strength of Kiran's government increased after 17 MLAs from the Praja Rajyam Party joined the ruling Congress recently. The MIM with seven MLAs is also supporting the government from outside.
The TDP also said it would press for a division when the voting on the no-confidence motion is taken up, apparently to corner YSR Congress and those Congress MLAs who had switched their loyalties to Jagan.
The government is in favour of a brief session, as it is mandatory to convene the session once in every six months. It has also lined up more than 10 Bills, including those related to ordinances amending the VAT Act and on the financial inclusion of tenant farmers. The ruling party had an original strength of 155 MLAs in the present Assembly, of which former chief minister YSR’s wife Vijayamma was re-elected to the house after resigning from the Congress.
