Kiran survives, Jagan proves point

The opposition sponsored no-confidence motion against the Congress government in Andhra Pradesh was defeated by a huge margin in the state assembly late Monday night.
After over a 16-hour-long debate on the motion moved by Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the house voted on the motion after 1 a.m. While 122 members supported the motion, 160 opposed it and there was one neutral. Five members were absent during the voting.
Though 16 Congress legislators loyal to YSR Congress party leader Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy violated the whip to vote in favour of the motion, it was not enough to defeat the government.
The ruling party has 153 members in 295-member house. The magic figure required to defeat the motion was 143 as there are seven vacancies in the house.
In addition to ruling party's 136 members, 17 out of 18 legislators of Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) and all seven members of Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) opposed the motion.
All 85 members of TDP, 12 of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), four of CPI, two of BJP, one each of CPI-M, YSR Congress party and independent voted for the motion.
Though YSR Congress party's honorary president Vijayamma had reached the assembly in the morning with 18 Congress rebels, the number dwindled to 16 by the time of the voting. Suspense over the actual strength of Jagan group continued till the last minute as Congress leaders made all out efforts to win back rebels.
Announcing the defeat of the motion, Speaker N. Manohar adjourned the house sine die.
On the last day of the five-day winter session, the house debated the motion for over 16 hours. The debate was marred by not just heated exchanges between treasury and opposition benches but also by the allegations and counter allegations among the parties supporting the motion.
If the final result at the no-confidence vote was to be taken into account, the Congress has only 137 members whereas the combined Opposition strength was 122.
“If one were to take out the combined strength of PRP and MIM (24 MLAs) and add it to the Opposition tally, it would almost reach the magical 150-mark which is sufficient to unseat the Kiran government. It was a close shave for the CM. Despite his bravado, the CM must be feeling the jitters,” a senior analyst pointed out.

Karthika's resignation relieves Jayasudha

Actress-turned-Secunderabad Congress MLA Jayasudha is greatly relieved with the resignation of Banda Karthika from the Mayor post of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation on Monday, paving way for theMajlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen candidate.
Jayasudha was feeling insecure to her position, as Karthika was eyeing on the Secunderabad assembly seat in the next elections.
In fact, Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy is believed to have promised to secure the Congress ticket to Karthika, as Jayasudha was moving in the YSR Congress party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy camp. And Karthika began nurturing the constituency, moving actively in the Secunderabad constituency using her power as the Hyderabad Mayor.
Now that Jayasudha is back in the Congress fold, she is feeling threat from Karthika. She managed to prevail upon Kiran to keep aside Karthika and got an assurance for the party ticket in the next assembly elections as well. The resignation of Karthika under the MIM pressure gave Jayasudha a lot of relief, as she has to now work under her as a Congress leader and not as a contender.
In fact, it was Jayasudha who had campaigned for Karthika in the GHMC elections two years ago and got her elected as Tarnaka corporator.
Later, after becoming Mayor, Karthika started ignoring Jayasudha and behaving as an independent leader. She denied seats to Jayasudha’s followers in the ward committee elections.

MLAs got richer overnight

The no-confidence motion introduced by the Telugu Desam Party in the state assembly has turned out to be an excellent opportunity to many MLAs from various parties to reap rich benefits.
It was a sort of windfall for the Praja Rajyam Party MLAs, as the Congress high command has assured them to take care of all their interests besides reportedly handing over “suitcases” to them.
On the other hand, several Congress MLAs in the camp of YSR Congress party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, too, have been lured back into the Congress with monetary and other benefits.
The Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (MIM) also rightly used the opportunity to blackmail the Congress party and got the Hyderabad Mayor seat for the next three years, instead of just two years, as a sort of gift for saving the Kiran government.
At the same time, the Congress party has also managed to silence its rebels like Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and P Shankar Rao to vote for the Kiran government, though they are bitter critics of him.
It is yet to be known what “settlement” they had reached to vote for the Chief Minister. The Congress leaders are also allegedly “managed” Telangana Rashtra Samithi MLA Ch Ramesh to stay back in Germany in the name of flight problems.
Unfortunately, only the TDP legislators could not get anything in the bargain. “We are moving the no-trust motion and you are getting the benefits,” a TDP legislator commented with a rebel Congress MLA in the assembly.

Will Jagan serve a surprise punch?

The ruling Congress seems to be confident of getting through the no-confidence motion today without much of a hitch. Despite all the jockeying by various parties, the numbers still seem to favour Kiran Kumar Reddy government.

The ruling combine commands 162 MLAs on its side, while the opposition could muster only 124 MLAs as of now. The PRP threat passed off as a storm in a cup and the less than convincing attempt of TRS to provoke T Congress MLAs to vote against the government failed miserably.
The MIM, after the understanding reached over Hyderabad Mayor post, is all set to support the government.
Jagan is still making last ditch efforts to throw a surprise by continually talking to his group MLAs, many of whom have already declared their vote to the Congress Party. His reported attempts at luring some T Congress MLAs yielded little result.
While Kiran’s government is under no threat of losing on the floor, the no-confidence is still generating lot of interest because of any unexpected developments in the Jagan camp. Even if a few Jagan MLAs vote for the motion, it would indeed trigger important political developments in the state, as by-polls would be necessitated, and Jagan’s YSR Congress will have an opportunity to prove its mettle in the electoral arena.
It is also to be seen who Lok Satta Jayaprakash Narayan, Associate Member Somarapu Satyanarayana (issued a Congress whip and Sobha Nagireddy (earlier PRP and now a Jagan loyalist) will vote for.

MIM blackmailing fruitful

Till the other day, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation mayor Banda Karthika Reddy was reluctant to step down from her post and was firm on continuing in the post for at least another one year.
Even Pradesh Congress Committee president Botsa Satyanarayana was bargaining with the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen that the Congress wants to retain the Mayor post for another one year, after which it would be handed over to the MIM.
However, all of a sudden, Karthika agreed to resign from the post and Botsa declared that it would be given to the MIM.
One wonders what exactly happened in the last two days.
The answer was simple: the MIM is believed to have taken full advantage of the no-confidence motion introduced by the Telugu Desam Party in the assembly to pull down the Kiran Kumar Reddy government.
The Congress was alert to the reports that MIM president Asaduddin was a good friend of YSR Congress party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy and if the Congress take a rigid stand on the Mayor post, he might ask the MIM MLAs to join hands with the Jagan party and vote against the Kiran Kumar Reddy government during the no-confidence motion voting.
Since the Kiran government is just counting the numbers to survive and every MLA is very important for it, the Congress party had no option but to succumb to the MIM pressures and give up the Mayor post.
After all, the Chief Minister position is more important than the Mayor post!

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.

FDI(Family Direct Investment) approved

The noisy Indian democracy has scripted a silent revolution. The politicians have arrived at a consensus on FDI policy. That is Family Direct Investment. Top hierarchy of political parties can have 100 percent FDI, allowing for hereditary route to the coveted organizational positions.
Unlike its economic counterpart, where 51 percent Foreign Direct Investment proposal in multi-brand retail met with stiff resistance, the political FDI policy was widely welcomed. “In fact, there are no reforms involved here. It is essentially the reaffirmation of faith in the long cherished value system of respecting the dynastic rights of ruling families,” a Congress spokesman said.
Both the national leaders and the regional chieftains were equally excited about the prospect of giving the long-held tradition a legal and constitutional framework. According to the policy draft, cleared by the union cabinet, the sons and sons-in-law of the incumbent party chiefs will have birthright over the post which cannot be challenged in any court of law. The word “sons-in-law” was included in the definition of the family to please the southern satrap and TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu.
The political observers were quick to point out that this FDI policy was a masterstroke by the UPA leadership to get its sulking allies on board. “The DMK, NCP, RLD and MIM have extended their whole-hearted support to the policy. Even the potential allies like Samajwadi Party and RJD have pledged their support to us off the record,” the spokesman said.
Even some of the NDA allies like Shiv Sena and Shiromani Akali Dal and those in the no-man’s land like JD (S) and BJD were willing to cross over to UPA camp for upholding the great Indian family values. The development has also brightened the prospect of home-coming for YSR Congress President Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy who had walked out of the parent party for not applying the established family traditions in his case.
Asked about the “party with a difference” whose tallest bachelor leader has not named his heir apparent, the Congress spokesman quipped “For them, family means Parivar. Sangh Parivar, that is. So, it is the Sangh that decides the successor.” Similarly, the “ideological parents” from the foreign soil will guide the destiny of Indian communist parties, he reasoned.
While allowing 100 percent FDI in the top echelons of the party apparatus, the new policy, however, stipulates that 30 percent of the menial jobs like mobilizing donations and managing the voters must be sourced to the locally available small and medium thugs.