AP Legislative council : 18 YSRCP MLAs abstain from voting, Jagan fumes

Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy reportedly expressed his anger over the failure in floor management, on Monday. It may be noted that the Assembly has passed the resolution to dissolve the Legislative Council, after conducting a voting in the House. During the voting on dissolution of the Legislative Council, in the House, 18 YSRCP MLAs were not present in the House.

In fact Government Whips-Dadisetty Raja and Chevireddy Bhaskar Reddy were also not present during the voting, and quoting the same, the leader of the House Jagan Mohan Reddy has questioned the senior leaders as to why, they didn’t communicate about the voting. While 133 ruling party members have voted in favour of the dissolution of the Legislative Council, 18 members were absent for the voting. Initially, it was counted that 121 have voted in favour of the Council dissolution resolution, and when it was counted second time, the number rose to 133.

While, Whip Chevireddy Bhaskar Reddy left the House just before the Counting, the suspended TDP MLA Vallabhaneni Vamshee was very much there in the Assembly lobbies. Meanwhile, Maddala Giri, Guntur West MLA from TDP, who has recently distanced himself from the party, was not there in the House. The two ministers-Pilli Subhash Chandrabose and Mopidevi Venkata Ramana didn’t participate in the voting, as they are the members of the Legislative Council. Only MLA of Jana Sena Party (JSP) Rapaka also voted in favour of the resolution initiated by the ruling YSRCP, aiming at dissolving the Council.

However, the absence of 18 YSRCP MLAs for voting, has given enough breathing space to the opposition TDP. The leader of opposition Chandrababu Naidu, who spoke to the media, after the Assembly approved the resolution aiming at scraping the Legislative Council, has stated that 10 States have placed their request before the Union Government to reinstate the Legislative Councils, in their respective States. Naidu also has thrown satire on the treasury benches, by questioning the affordability of Government. “While you are spending Rs.30 Crore towards Court expenses, can’t you spend Rs. 60 Crore, to run the Legislative Council,” Naidu has questioned the Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.