The Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSR Congress has moved a no-confidence motion against the Narendra Modi-headed NDA government at the Centre, pressing for special status for Andhra Pradesh. Party MP Y.V. Subba Reddy submitted a notice to the Lok Sabha Speaker on Friday and claimed to have mustered the signatures of around 50 MPs, sufficient to move the no-trust motion.
Initially, Jagan’s MPs approached and secured the support of TDP which has 16 MPs in Lok Sabha to their notice, but later the TDP changed its mind and decided to move a separate no-trust motion on its own. “We are the first movers of the no-confidence motion against this BJP government in the last four years and we will go ahead with our motion,” Subba Reddy told the media on Saturday.
Jagan, who is currently touring Guntur district, told a gathering on Saturday morning that his five MPs would press for debate on their no-trust motion in the Lok Sabha and submit their resignations on the last day of the budget session, if there was no specific assurance from the Centre to the demand of granting special status to AP.
“We will go to any extent on securing special category status to Andhra Pradesh and are ready to make any sacrifices for it. CM Chandrababu Naidu who first agreed to support our no-confidence motion has created confusion among opposition parties in Parliament by moving a separate motion on the same subject in the same form,” said Jagan.
Initially, Jagan fixed 6 April, the last day of the budget session for submitting the resignations of his MPs, but then changed to any day, whenever the session adjourns sine die. Jagan hopes that as the elections are a year away, the Election Commission would hold bypolls to these vacant seats and the verdict would be treated as a referendum on the special status issue.
A war of words has been going on between Jagan and CM Chandrababu Naidu for some time on securing special status for AP which was almost ruled out by the Centre.
After Jagan advanced his no-trust motion date from 21 March to 16 March, the Chief Minister was forced to back it and had to pull out of the NDA too.
What came as a boost to Jagan was the unexpected support from Jana Sena president and Tollywood star Pawan Kalyan, for his fight for the cause of special status for AP. Pawan Kalyan, who addressed a massive rally in Guntur on the occasion of his party formation day on 14 March, said that he would support whoever fights for the special status for Andhra. Pawan Kalyan’s scathing attack against CM Naidu and his son and AP minister Lokesh for promoting corruption in the state, too, has come as a shot in the arm for Jagan.