In an unprecedented action in state legislature history, Andhra Pradesh Assembly Speaker Nadendla Manohar on Friday night disqualified 16 MLAs of ruling Congress who had voted against the party government during a no-trust motion in December last year sailing with expelled Congress leader Y S Jaganmohan Reddy.
The speaker also accepted the resignation of Praja Rajyam Party MLA B Sobha Nagi Reddy who too had backed Jagan.
The development brings down the strength of Congress from 154 to 137 in a house of 294 but does not threaten the Congress government headed by Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy which enjoys the support of 17 members of PRP and seven of Majlis Ittehadul Muslimin. There are already seven seats vacant in the assembly.
All these MLAs, owing allegiance to YSR Congress President and Kadapa MP Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, were disqualified under the anti-defection law after they had defied the party whip and voted against the Kiran Kumar Reddy government on the no-confidence motion moved by main opposition Telugu Desam Party on December 5 last year.
Congress and Praja Rajyam Party, which is still recognised as a separate group in the state Assembly despite its merger with Congress, had filed petitions on December 12 seeking disqualification of the 17 rebel MLAs for defying the parties' whip and voting in support of no-confidence motion.
Sobha Nagi Reddy subsequently tendered her resignation from the house even as she challenged the locus standi of PRP in issuing a whip when the outfit no longer existed.
