The Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly will on March 14 take up a no-confidence motion moved against the 21-month-old Telugu Desam Party-led Government by Opposition YSR Congress (YSRC).
Admitting the motion, notice for which was given by the lone Opposition party today, Speaker Kodela Sivaprasada Rao announced in the House that it would be taken up for discussion on Monday.
On paper, the Jaganmohan Reddy-led outfit's strength still remains 67 in the 175-member House but eight of its MLAs switched sides to the TDP in recent days.
The TDP has 102 members of its own while an Independent member and another belonging to Navodayam Party have become its "associates". The Bharatiya Janata Party, TDP's coalition partner, has four MLAs.
The YSRC issued a notice this morning to Andhra Legislature Secretary (in charge) Satyanarayana Rao to move a motion of no-confidence against the Chandrababu Naidu Government, alleging that it failed to fulfill the promises it made ahead of the elections in 2014.
"People lost confidence in the TDP government as it failed on all fronts. It is also steeped in corruption," the YSRC alleged.
The ostensible purpose of the no-confidence motion, however, is for the YSRC to build a strong legal case against its MLAs who crossed over to the ruling party in recent days.
Eight of YSRC MLAs defected to the TDP since February 22 and the Opposition party formally filed a petition with the Assembly Speaker on March 5 seeking their disqualification for violating Schedule X of the Constitution (dealing with anti- defection issues).
Now that a no-confidence motion has been moved, the YSRC gets to issue a whip to its MLAs to vote in its favour and whoever violates it will become liable for disqualification.
Also, the same ground could be used against the defectors if the matter is taken to court, YSRC leaders feel.
