New Delhi:
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party, once the BJP’s biggest ally in south, will pitch for a no-confidence motion against the government in Lok Sabha today. Mr Naidu, who walked out of the NDA last week, sent a notice after his arch-rival Jagan Mohan Reddy of the YSR Congress, demanded a trust vote. Even if the TDP-YSR Congress motion is supported by other opposition parties, it does not endanger the government, which has numbers in the Lok Sabha. But the move will help the two south parties consolidate their position back home ahead of next year’s assembly elections.
Here is your 10-point guide to the no-trust vote:
- Taken together, the TDP and the YSR Congress do not have the numbers for the motion to be admitted and would need the support of other parties.
- A trust vote has to be backed by 50 members to be admitted. The TDP has 15 members and the YSR Congress eight. Together, they have 23 members in total, less than half the numbers required. The Left and Congress have already said it would support the motion.
- The TDP has been on the warpath since last month, saying they have received little in union budget presented by finance minister Arun Jaitley. The party has been unhappy since the demand for special category status for Andhra Pradesh – promised by the UPA government led by Manmohan Singh during the bifurcation of Telangana in 2014 — was turned down by the government.
- Despite numerous meetings with the central leadership, Mr Naidu remained unsuccessful in getting the recognition for his state. Mr Jaitley said special status, which allows a state huge financial grants and schemes, has been scrapped for all but the hill states and the northeastern states by the 14th Finance Commission.
- The TDP and the YSR Congress wrote to the Lok Sabha secretariat last week to put the notice for the motion in the revised list of business for today.
- Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said the notices could not be taken up last week due to the perpetual disruption in the house by the members of the opposition.
- It remains uncertain if order will be restored today. Two other key parties from South, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi and Tamil Nadu’s AIADMK, which have often cooperated with the government on its legislative business, has been protesting over a host of issues since last week.
- The TDP is facing extreme pressure from opposition parties in the state like the YSR Congress — which has been accusing Mr Naidu of failing the state — ahead of the assembly elections and the national election next year.
- When efforts to persuade the centre failed, the TDP pulled its two ministers out of the central government. On Friday, Mr Naidu announced that the TDP was pulling out of the NDA and the party would bring a no-confidence separately against the centre.
- Mr Naidu’s party claims the YSR Congress chief Jagan Mohan Reddy and actor-politician Pawan Kalyan are BJP stooges. The BJP is using them to divide the electorate and erode the TDP’s support base in the state, the party has said.
- Source: NDTV
