Congress government SURVIVES in Andhra, defeats TDP's no-confidence motion

The Kiran Kumar Reddy-led Congress government has defeated a no-confidence motion moved against it by the Telugu Desam Party by a margin of 38 votes after a marathon 16-hour debate in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly.

While 122 members of the legislative assembly voted in favour of the no-confidence motion on Monday night, 160 voted against it and one legislator was neutral.

As many as 16 Congress MLAs also voted in favour of the motion. These MLAs have supported YSR Congress chief Y S Jaganmohan Reddy for sometime now. One Congress MLA walked out of the House minutes before voting began.

One MLA each of Telangana Rashtra Samiti and MIM did not attend the House as they are outside the country.

The debate on the no-confidence motion over the plight of farmers in the state lasted a marathon 16 hours, after which voting was taken up at 12.55 am, followed by the head-count of MLAs.

The ruling party has 153 members in the 295-member House.

This is the ninth time that a no-confidence motion has been moved against a ruling government in Andhra Pradesh's history. All such motions have been defeated so far.

TDP president Chandrababu Naidu had moved a similar motion against the then Y S Rajasekhara Reddy's government in 2008 and lost. This is the second time that his no-confidence motion has been defeated.

On Monday, the debate on the no-confidence motion witnessed an acrimonious verbal duel between Reddy and Naidu, who said the government has become a "big joke".

"Our no-confidence is not only against the chief minister but also against the ministers. This government has lost our confidence to rule," Naidu had remarked, prompting Reddy to retort, "We don't need Chandrababu's confidence. We have the people's confidence and hence are in power".

As the Leader of Opposition named the chief minister and made certain remarks about his administration, Reddy rose and said angrily, "Let us settle the scores now," provoking an equal reaction from the former.

"My family (Kiran and his late father Amarnath Reddy) has won 12 elections on behalf of the Congress since 1962. I have the support of MLAs and the grace of Sonia Gandhi. You back stabbed your own father-in-law to become the chief minister (in 1995)," Reddy had retorted.