Congress survives trust vote in Andhra Pradesh

The Congress government in Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday defeated a no-confidence vote in the legislature moved by Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief Chandrababu Naidu over the issue of farmer suicides in the state.

Even though the Congress defeated the motion with a 160-vote majority against the 122 votes mustered by the opposition, while one legislator stayed neutral, 16 MLAs from the party and one from Paraja Rajyam Party (PRP) that has merged with it, voted in favour of the motion.

The Congress MLAs who voted against their party, expressing their backing for former Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy´s son Jagan Mohan Reddy, who has parted ways from the Congress to form his own party, face disqualification, media reports said.

Even though the opposition was far from a majority with the TDP having 86 MLAs and the Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS) having 12 MLAs, the trust was closely watched for signs of rifts between the Congress.

However, some divides appeared to have been bridged as of the 21 MLAs with ties to Jagan Reddy who attended a meeting to decide over voting against the Congress, only 16 ultimately voted against the party.

The debate for the no-confidence motion in the 295-member house lasted 16 hours as voting was finally taken up at 12:55 am.