Congress, TDP, TRS whip MLAs

The ruling Congress and the opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) Sunday issued whips to their legislators on the opposition's no-confidence motion in the assembly.
While Congress directed all its 153 members in the 295-member house to vote against the TDP's no-confidence motion, the main opposition party asked its 86 legislators to back the motion when it comes up for voting Monday. TRS also asked all its 12 MLAs to be present in the house and vote for the motion.
Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) has not yet issued a whip to its lawmakers, keeping the Congress on its toes amid continuing uncertainty over the fate of the no-confidence motion.
PRP chief K. Chiranjeevi Sunday met 17 legislators of his party, who openly voiced unhappiness over being sidelined by the Congress even after the merger.
Since PRP remains a separate block in the assembly pending disposal of a petition in court by a PRP legislator challenging the merger, Chiranjeevi will have to issue a whip to ensure that all the legislators vote against the motion.
Unhappy over the delay in accommodating them in the state cabinet and other posts, the PRP MLAs are mounting pressure for their pound of flesh to bail-out the government.
Chiranjeevi briefed the MLAs about the assurance given by central Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad to him last night. However, the meeting could not take a decision on issuing a whip as some leaders wanted that they be allowed to vote according to their conscience.
Meanwhile, YSR Congress party chief Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy is holding a crucial meeting with Congress legislators loyal to him to take a final decision on his strategy. Twenty-one legislators, who met him Saturday, said they were ready to vote against the government and face by-elections if they were disqualified for violating party whip.
Two other loyalists opposed Jagan's decision to vote against the government and walked out of Saturday's meeting.
As many as 26 Congress rebels had switched loyalties to Jagan in August but some of them have since returned to the party fold.
Congress leaders including ministers met some of Jagan loyalists and handed them the party whip.
The ruling party is confident of defeating the motion with the support of PRP and its ally Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM), which has seven members.
PRP has 18 members in assembly but one of them Shoba Nagi Reddy is sailing with Jagan.
As there are seven vacancies in 295-member house (including a nominated member), Congress needs 144 votes to defeat the motion. The ruling party is sure of garnering 157 votes even if 21 rebels vote against it.
The parties which are in support of motion include CPI (4), BJP (2), CPI-M, Lok Satta and YSR Congress one each and one independent.

Its Jagan behind PRP MLAs revolt!!

The sudden heat generated in megastar-politician Chiranjeevi camp on the day the Opposition parties were gearing up for no-confidence motion against the Kiran Kumar Reddy government has raised many eyebrows in the political circles.
Though it is initially believed that Pradesh Congress Committee president Botsa Satyanarayana had instigated the yet-to-be wound up Praja Rajyam Party MLAs to pull down the Kiran government, reliable sources tell a different story.
Many of the MLAs in the Chiranjeevi camp were in touch with YSR Congress party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy and had given them promise to pull down the Kiran government at the right time. They are not happy with the way the Chief Minister was ignoring them and the Congress party leaders in their respective constituencies ill-treating them.
However, Chiranjeevi, a political novice that he is, was of the view that all his MLAs would listen to his words. So, when he had a meeting of the MLAs at his chambers in the assembly, they all pulled him up for not taking up their cause with the Congress high command.
“You have ensured your own political future; you may get the union cabinet berth sooner or later. But, what about us? We have not got even corporation chairperson posts, leave alone cabinet berths in the state. We don’t even know whether we get the Congress tickets in the next elections and even if some us will get, we don’t know whether we will get support of the local Congress leaders. Instead, it is better to go the Jaganmohan Reddy camp. At least there, we will get some recognition and he would ensure our victory,” the MLAs are learnt to have told Chiranjeevi.
The megastar was taken aback with the revolt and it was only after that he had leaked to the media about the disgruntlement among his group MLAs. And Botsa had to personally intervene and pacify him.
Later in the evening, AICC general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad spoke to him and asked him to pacify his group MLAs. He assured to take care of the interests of the PRP legislators.