Thaindian News

Hyderabad, June 7 (IANS) Andhra Pradesh Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan Tuesday prorogued the state legislature, rejecting the demand from the main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) not to do so to take up a no-confidence motion moved against the Congress government.

The governor issued a notification to prorogue both the houses of the state legislature, which means that the TDP would have to wait till the monsoon session, likely next month, to take up its no-confidence motion.

The legislative assembly and the council had met for a special session last Saturday to elect the speaker and the deputy speaker of the assembly and chairman and vice-chairman of the council.

The TDP, which had submitted notice for the no-confidence motion just before the assembly met, had taken strong exception to the house not taking up the motion even after election of the speaker and the deputy speaker.

Leader of the opposition and TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu along with all the legislators had called on the governor the same day to urge him to convene special session of the assembly to enable it to take up the no-confidence motion.

Naidu had argued that under the assembly rules any no-confidence motion has to be taken up for debate and voting within 10 days from the day when it is submitted.

The TDP had Monday demanded that the governor not prorogue the house as this would be a violation of business rules and a negation of parliamentary procedure to favour the ruling party.

Reacting to the governor’s decision, former speaker and TDP leader Y. Ramakrishnudu alleged it was a conspiracy by the governor, the chief minister and the speaker to prevent the no-confidence motion from coming up.

Speaker N. Manohar had stated Monday that he has not received the notice for no-confidence motion. The TDP leader termed this as “surprising” and alleged that the speaker is violating assembly rules.

The opposition party had last week decided to move the no-confidence motion, saying the government had lost confidence of people by its utter failure to solve their problems, especially the problems of farmers.

The move was significant in view of the claims by leaders of YSR Congress party that they had the required numbers to bring down the government.

As many as 22 rebel legislators of Congress party attended a meeting called by YSR Congress party chief Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy last week to chalk out their strategy on the no-confidence motion.

Congress has 155 legislators in the 294-member house but is confident of defeating the no-trust motion with support from Praja Rajyam Party and Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, which have 18 and seven members, respectively.