Flustered by crossing over of eight of its MLAs to the ruling TDP, the opposition YSR Congress in Andhra Pradesh today sought disqualification of the legislators who have switched sides.
Hours before the commencement of the Budget session of the state legislature, the YSRCP filed a petition with Assembly Speaker Kodela Sivaprasada Rao, seeking disqualification of the eight MLAs who have "defected" to the Telugu Desam Party since last month.
A delegation of the party MLAs, led by deputy leader Jyothula Nehru, met Rao and filed the petition, seeking action against the MLAs as per 'Schedule X' of the Constitution.
Eight MLAs-- Bhuma Nagi Reddy, Bhuma Akhila Priya, C Adinarayana Reddy, Jaleel Khan, T Jayaramulu, P David Raju, M Mani Gandhi and K V Ramana Murthy--have crossed over to the TDP since February 22.
"Crossing over to another party after getting elected on one party's symbol is unethical. We requested the Speaker to immediately take action against these MLAs in accordance with the Anti-Defection Act.
"The Speaker assured us that he would go by the rules and take a decision at the earliest," Nehru told reporters after the meeting with the Speaker.
The YSRC leader also said the party had submitted some material evidence like video recordings and audio clips against the MLAs to establish their defection.
"If the Speaker acts in a just manner on our plea, we may not be required to move a no-confidence motion against him. Otherwise, we may have to. But we are looking into some technical issues on this," he said.
YSRC leaders had earlier toyed with the idea of moving a no-confidence motion against the TDP government led by Chandrababu Naidu as a strategy to pave ground for disqualification of the deserters.
The party strategy was that the no-trust motion would give it a context to issue a whip to all its MLAs and disqualification proceedings could be initiated against those violating the party whip.
