Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Assembly
Speaker Nadendla Manohar on Monday issued notices to 16 rebel MLAs
of the ruling Congress to respond by December 29 to the
petitions seeking their disqualification.
Congress filed the petitions on December 12 seeking
disqualification of 16 of its MLAs for defying the party whip
and voting in support of Telugu Desam Party`s no-confidence
motion against the Government in the Assembly on December 5.
These MLAs have been sailing with YSR Congress of
Kadapa MP Y S Jaganmohan Reddy for several months now. They
have been stating that they are ready to face the axe and go
for by-elections.
The Speaker visited New Delhi recently to study how
the then Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee disposed of the
disqualification petitions against MPs in 2008.
Manohar also consulted constitutional experts to
elicit their views on the issue as the current case in AP is
said to be the first-of-its-kind in legislature history, where
a ruling party is seeking disqualification of so many MLAs.
The MLAs are: Balineni Srinivasa Reddy, Pilli Subhash
Chandra Bose, Konda Surekha (all former Ministers), Mekapati
Chandrasekhar Reddy (brother of Nellore MP Rajamohan Reddy),
Dharmana Krishna Das (brother of AP Minister D Prasada Rao), M
Sucharita, Amarnatha Reddy, T Balaraju, G Babu Rao, G Srikanth
Reddy, Kapu Ramachandra Reddy, Srinivasulu, Prasada Raju,
Gurunath Reddy, Chennakesava Reddy and P Ramakrishna Reddy.
Meanwhile, Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) rebel MLA P Sobha
Nagi Reddy today sought a week`s time to give a clarification
on the disqualification petition moved against her.
Accordingly, the Speaker gave her time till December
27 to present her case, Legislature sources said.
Sobha, who voted in favour of the motion, met the
Speaker in response to a notice issued by him.
PTI
