In a major political development, the YSR Congress on Monday threatened that its Parliamentarians will resign if their no-confidence motion is not taken up for debate in the lok Sabha.
After multiple attempts to discuss the motion against the denial of special status for Andhra Pradesh in the Budget, all the five MPs of the YSR Congress said they would put in their papers if there is no discussion on the no-trust vote before April 6.
The Congress and the CPI(M) on Monday submitted separate notices of no-confidence against the BJP-led Central Government in the lok Sabha. The notice is part of an Opposition strategy to step up pressure on the NDA Government in the lok Sabha.
Parliament did not function on Monday due to a scheduled break and will resume again on Tuesday and after that Wednesday because again there is a long holiday scheduled from March 29 (Thursday) March 30 (Friday) and the weekend. Sources in major political parties said that the stand-off between the Government and Opposition will continue for the two days leaving only the first week of April with five working days.
The YSR Congress and the TDP from Andhra Pradesh had moved no-confidence motions against the Government recently for the latter’s failure to honour the “promise” of granting special category status to the southern State and seeking a special financial package for it. The CPI(M) became the fourth party to move a no-confidence motion against the Government in the lok Sabha.
The CPI(M) leader of the party in the lok Sabha, P Karunakaran, submitted the notice to the lok Sabha Secretariat and urged Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to include the no-confidence motion in the revised list of business for Tuesday.
“Under rule 198(b) of chapter XVII of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the lok Sabha, I hereby give notice to move the motion of no-confidence in the Council of Ministers in the House on March 27, 2018. I request you to kindly include the motion in the revised list of business,” the notice says.
Meanwhile, In a significant change of strategy, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti has decided not to obstruct the proceedings of Parliament and facilitate the discussion on the no-trust motion against the Narendra Modi Government.
The decision was taken at a meeting of TRS MPs in Hyderabad on Monday chaired by the party president and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.
Party general secretary and Rajya Sabha member K Keshav Rao said that the meeting decided not to come in the way of the no-trust motion. “The Central Government was using our justified protest as an excuse to get the House adjourned for the last many days. We don’t want this to continue”, he said.
There is no truth in the impression that the protest by the TRS MPs on the issue of reservation was obstructing the no-trust motion moved by the Telugu Desam Party, he added.
“TRS does not have any reason to come to the rescue of the BJP”, he said, adding that the MPs will not go into the well of the House and not obstruct the no-trust motion.
“We known many other ways to protest”, he said. “Our members will not enter the well of the House with placards but we will continue our protest”, he said.
“Our fight on the issue of reservation is just and we are committed to it”, Keshav Rao said, adding that it was baseless to say that the TRS was obstructing TDP’s no-confidence motion.
Another MP AP Jintendra Reddy said that the TRS will not allow a situation in which any obstruction comes up in the way of the no-trust motion.