A jittery Congress, in order to kill two birds with one stone, is planning action against its nine rebel MLAs who have vowed support to Jagan Mohan Reddy. The Congress is contemplating action in a bid to sail through the no-confidence motion against the government smoothly, in case any party moves it in the ensuing budget session of the Assembly, and not to give any chance to the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) to get an MLC seat in the soon to be held polls to the ten MLC seats.
According to sources, after much dilly-dallying for several months, the Congress leadership is considering action against the rebels.
As per this decision, the Congress Legislature Party leadership will ask Speaker N Manohar to accept the resignations of five of its MLAs—S Vijaya Krishna Ranga Rao (Bobbili), Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas alias Nani (Eluru), Maddala Rajesh Kumar (Chintalapudi), Dwarampudi Chandrasekhara Reddy (Kakinada Urban) and Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy (Punganur)—which are lying on the table of the Speaker.
The Congress leadership will also take action against four of its legislators who met Jagan at Chanchalguda prison and pledged their support to him. They are: Perni Venkata Ramiah alias Nani (Machilipatnam), Buchepalli Siva Prasada Reddy (Darsi), Gottipati Ravi Kumar (Addanki) and Jogi Ramesh (Pedana). The party leadership is planning to suspend these four from the party so as to request the Speaker to disqualify them from their membership of the Assembly.
If the resignations of the five MLAs are accepted, the strength of the House will come down from 293 to 288 and the magic figure needed for the government’s survival will also come down from 147 to 145. Since the number of Congress MLAs, after initiating action against the nine legislators, will be 147, there will be no immediate threat to the government. If the Congress leadership does not act against its rebels now, then it will need the support of 147 MLAs for the survival of the government as the test will be based on the actual strength of the Assembly.
Earlier, there was a proposition that if the Congress does not act against the rebel MLAs, even then they may follow the party line, because disqualification from the Assembly would mean they have to face bypolls, a year ahead of the general polls, which would have put an unwanted financial burden on them. But, that proposition has also been discarded because panchayat polls will be conducted soon. By the time the panchayat polls and elections to other local bodies are over, 2014 general elections will be due. Hence, it is highly unlikely that bypolls will be held to the seats where either resignations are accepted or MLAs are disqualified.
If the rebels stay in the Assembly, they can help YSRCP win one MLC seat, which would pose a grave threat to the official nominees of both the ruling party and TDP, the principal Opposition. The incumbent MLCs will complete their terms on March 29. Of them, Congress holds five seats, TDP three, and CPI and CPI(M) one each. Elections are slated for March 21.
If action is initiated against Jagan loyalists in the Congress as well as the TDP, then the YSRCP might not grab the MLC seat unless MIM, which has 7 MLAs, supports it.
The TRS, which has 18 MLAs, might win one seat too if it can garner the support of CPI (4), BJP (3) along with two suspended TDP MLAs However, the TDP too is planning to win the support of the CPI.
The MIM, which has seven members, is going to play a key role in the tussle for the tenth seat along with CPM (1) and Lok Satta (1).