Hyderabad:
It was a game of throw-and-catch that was played at the Andhra Pradesh Assembly today even as Governor ESL Narasimhan read out his address to the jointly convened legistive Houses. Opposition legislators were testing their skills in flinging paper missiles at the Governor while a multi-layered security ring of officers was trying to ensure none of reached their target.
The government officials' defence ring managed to ward off attempts of revolting MLAs to get into the well of the House. Perhaps tired of not hitting their target, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) members finally walked out.
Outside, the barbs of the other Opposition parties like the Telengana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and the YSR Congress were directed at the TDP, whose party president Chandrababu Naidu had earlier refused to support a no-confidence motion proposed to be moved by the TRS on the floor of the House.
The TRS and the YSR Congress called this match-fixing on the part of the TDP. They say Mr Naidu has been claiming that he wants to bring down the Congress government in Andhra Pradesh and yet does not want to support the no-trust motion.
"We don't want to depend on the purchasing capacity of the YSR Congress to win this trust vote,'' said R Chandrasekhar, a TDP leader. He says the YSR Congress wants to use this as a bargaining and negotiating tool, to mount pressure on the Congress leadership, and secure the release of their leader Jagan Mohan Reddy from jail.
YSR Congress leader Srikant Reddy says the party has shown itself to be strong politically and there is no question of a merger or any understanding with the Congress party. "We will support the no-confidence motion,'' Mr Reddy said.
The no-confidence motion is expected to be moved on Thursday by the TRS with support from like-minded political parties like the YSR Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party, Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen, Communist Party of India, Communist Party (Marxist) and the Lok Satta. Currently, the Congress has 155 MLAs in the 294-member Assembly and enjoys a wafer-thin majority; the half-way mark is 147.
TRS legislator T Rama Rao is upbeat about his party's chances of garnering support from legislators across party lines for the no-trust motion. He said, "I am confident that there will be members of the Congress who are disillusioned with the Kiran Kumar Reddy government and will vote against it. I am sure all parties who have been campaigning against the government will join us."
The Chief Minister, however, remains confident that his government will complete its full term. "People elected the Congress government for five years. None can bring it down. I am not someone to be cowed down," he said yesterday.