Delhi: The Congress leadership has decided on disciplinary action against 16 Congress MLAs in Andhra Pradesh who defied the party and whip and voted in favour of a no-confidence motion against the Kiran Kumar Reddy government earlier this week.
The Chief Minister was in Delhi to meet Congress' Andhra Pradesh in-charge Ghulam Nabi Azad and party chief Sonia Gandhi and has announced that he is recommending to the Speaker that they be disqualified.
The disqualification means by-elections will have to be held in 24 Assembly seats, including seven that are already vacant, six of them because the sitting members resigned on the issue of statehood for Telangana. The Congress performance in what may become a mini-referendum for the Kiran Kumar Reddy government may set the mood for the elections in 2014.
The 16 MLAs from the Congress voted against the Chief Minister in a show of loyalty to Jagan, who quit the party in November 2010 to set up his own YSR Congress, named after his father. Without these rebel MLAs, the Congress was reduced to a minority in the Assembly. Mr Reddy remains in power because of the support of two parties who voted for him: The PRP which was founded by actor Chiranjeevi who merged it with the Congress earlier this year, and the seven-member Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM).
Jagan had challenged the Congress to disqualify the members who defied the party whip. He wants by-elections to be held in their constituencies.
YSR Reddy was Chief Minister when he died in a helicopter crash two years ago. Jagan was not chosen as his successor, leading to a painfully public estrangement and then divorce from the Congress. During this process, as Jagan toured the state to assert himself as his father's political heir, several Congress MLAs defied party orders to escort him as he travelled through their constituencies. YSR was one of Andhra Pradesh's most popular leaders. Jagan's sweeping victory in the election for Kadapa, once represented by his father, proved his emerging power in local politics, and many Congress members were keen on a public association with him. A recent CBI investigation into Jagan's multi-crore business empire, has tarnished his sheen somewhat. So for him, the no-confidence vote on the government was a chance to prove he can still hit the Congress where it hurts.
The motion against Mr Reddy was courtesy Chandrababu Naidu and his party, the TDP, moved on the issue of farmers in distress though it was non-farmer politics that determined how everyone voted.
The Chief Minister was in Delhi to meet Congress' Andhra Pradesh in-charge Ghulam Nabi Azad and party chief Sonia Gandhi and has announced that he is recommending to the Speaker that they be disqualified.
The disqualification means by-elections will have to be held in 24 Assembly seats, including seven that are already vacant, six of them because the sitting members resigned on the issue of statehood for Telangana. The Congress performance in what may become a mini-referendum for the Kiran Kumar Reddy government may set the mood for the elections in 2014.
The 16 MLAs from the Congress voted against the Chief Minister in a show of loyalty to Jagan, who quit the party in November 2010 to set up his own YSR Congress, named after his father. Without these rebel MLAs, the Congress was reduced to a minority in the Assembly. Mr Reddy remains in power because of the support of two parties who voted for him: The PRP which was founded by actor Chiranjeevi who merged it with the Congress earlier this year, and the seven-member Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM).
Jagan had challenged the Congress to disqualify the members who defied the party whip. He wants by-elections to be held in their constituencies.
YSR Reddy was Chief Minister when he died in a helicopter crash two years ago. Jagan was not chosen as his successor, leading to a painfully public estrangement and then divorce from the Congress. During this process, as Jagan toured the state to assert himself as his father's political heir, several Congress MLAs defied party orders to escort him as he travelled through their constituencies. YSR was one of Andhra Pradesh's most popular leaders. Jagan's sweeping victory in the election for Kadapa, once represented by his father, proved his emerging power in local politics, and many Congress members were keen on a public association with him. A recent CBI investigation into Jagan's multi-crore business empire, has tarnished his sheen somewhat. So for him, the no-confidence vote on the government was a chance to prove he can still hit the Congress where it hurts.
The motion against Mr Reddy was courtesy Chandrababu Naidu and his party, the TDP, moved on the issue of farmers in distress though it was non-farmer politics that determined how everyone voted.
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