The six Congress MPs from Seemandhra, whose move to table a no-confidence motion against the UPA government has left their party leadership red-faced, are finding no support to carry forward the threat.
The Seemandhra MPs from the Congress, YSR Congress and Telugu Desam, opposed to the proposal for creation of state of Telangana, have written separately to the Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar seeking her nod to go ahead with the no-trust move.
To be admitted for discussion, it needs to be backed by at least one-tenth members of the effective strength of the lower house. Though they claim to have support of more than the required number of 55, there is no evidence to substantiate it.
Even parties like the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Samajwadi Party, which are opposed to division of States, are not willing to back the no-trust move.
In the face of clear negative signals from other parties, the Congress MPs from Seemandhra region continue to put up a brace face by asserting that they are working on numbers to pull down the “unpopular government”.
“We got some MPs supporting us both from Andhra Pradesh and other states. Still, we are working on the numbers,” Congress MP from Vijayawada Lagadapati Rajagopal said.
He was among the six MPs, who had signed the notice to move the no-confidence motion to stall the process of formation of a separate state of Telangana.
The MPs’ move came even as the government sent the Bill for creation of Telangana, which was cleared by the Cabinet on Thursday, to the President’s office. President Pranab Mukherjee would refer the bill to the Andhra Pradesh State Assembly for its views.
Given the short duration of the winter session of Parliament, the chances of the Telangana Bill coming up in the current session appear remote.
Despite the grave provocation from a group of its MPs, the Congress has so far not initiated any disciplinary action. A senior party leader said the Congress would tread carefully on the issue, given the rock-bottom morale of the party rank and file after the drubbing in the Assembly elections.
In response to a question at a news conference here, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said, “They (MPs) are from a disciplined force. If there is any indiscipline, the party will take care of that.”
UproarMr. Shinde, who is also the Leader of Lok Sabha, said due to the uproar in the House on a number of issues, the motion was not taken up by the Speaker today.
Separately, Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee said the people has already expressed “no-confidence” against the Centre and there was no need for bringing a motion against it in this regard. She was responding to a question whether her party would back the no-trust move initiated by the Andhra MPs.
