With Andhra Pradesh Assembly Speaker Tammineni Sitaram summoning eight rebel MLAs – four from the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and four from the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) – seeking to know why they should not be disqualified from their assembly seats, an interesting debate is ongoing about the actions he might take.
It is an open secret that four TDP MLAs – Vallabhaneni Vamsi from Gannavaram, Karanam Balaram from Chirala, Maddali Giridhar from Guntur (West), and Vasupalli Ganesh from Visakhapatnam (South) – have shifted their loyalties to the YSR Congress Party.
At the same time, four YSRCP MLAs – Mekapati Chandrasekhar Reddy from Udayagiri, Vundavalli Sridevi from Tadikonda, Anam Ramanarayan Reddy from Venkatagiri, and Kotamreddy Sridhar Reddy from Nellore (rural) – have moved to the TDP after they were suspended by the YSRCP leadership for allegedly cross-voting for TDP candidate Panchumarthi Anuradha in the MLC elections last year.
Now, with the elections to the three Rajya Sabha seats around the corner, the YSRCP moved a petition before the Speaker seeking to disqualify the four rebel MLAs, so that they won’t be able to vote for the TDP candidate in Rajya Sabha elections, in case it fields any candidate.
In a bid to counter this, the TDP also moved the Speaker seeking disqualification of four rebel TDP MLAs who shifted their loyalties to the YSRCP and are participating in the ruling party programs.
Against this backdrop, the Speaker had to issue notices to all the eight MLAs, asking them to appear before him on Monday to give their explanation for their defection to the rival parties.
Sources, however, said there is a possibility that Tammineni will take action only against the four rebel YSRC MLAs and keep the action against the rebel TDP MLAs in abeyance for now.
The reason is that the four rebel TDP MLAs – Vamsi, Balaram, Giridhar, and Ganesh – haven’t officially joined the YSRCP but are still on the TDP rolls in the assembly. Though they are moving with YSRC in their respective constituencies, they haven’t been declared party candidates for the coming elections.
On the other hand, the rebel YSRCP MLAs – Chandrasekhar Reddy, Anam, Kotamreddy, and Sridevi – have formally joined the TDP, and there are pictures to prove the same. At the same time, the YSRCP has also gathered evidence to show that they had voted for the TDP candidate in the MLC elections.
Showing the available evidence as an excuse, Sitaram might disqualify the rebel YSRC MLAs to preempt them from voting against the ruling party candidate in the Rajya Sabha polls, sources said.