Attempts by a group of Andhra Pradesh MPs, including six from the Congress, to move a no- confidence motion against the government for pushing for the proposed bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, came to a nought on Wednesday with the Lok Sabha adjourning sine die two days ahead of schedule.
Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar did not put the motion for admission on the ground that the House was not in order. Barring the passage of the Lokpal Bill amid disturbances, the winter session, which began on December 5, was a washout.
The government was seriously concerned at the move, particularly since six Congress MPs were part of the move. According to the Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj, for the first time members of the ruling party had attempted to table a no-confidence motion against its own government.
Though there was absolutely no chance of the motion getting carried by the House, the ruling combine did not want it to come up even to the stage of consideration. A minimum of a tenth of the members have to back a no-confidence motion for it to be commended and considered by the House.
At one stage, it looked as if the motion could be put to vote at the admission stage as the 22-member Samajwadi Party, piqued by the determination of the government to push through the Lokpal Bill, backed the move. Fourteen MPs of the Biju Janata Dal too pledged their support.
To add to the UPA’s woes, BJP president Rajnath Singh issued a statement on December 13, blaming the Congress for messing up the whole bifurcation issue. This statement came as a surprise to political observers as the principal opposition had all along insisted that the bill on bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh should be passed in the winter session. “From day one, they have adopted short sighted political approach towards this emotive, sensitive and serious issue. The Congress has treated this issue as its internal matter,” Mr. Singh had said, holding the Congress responsible for the “present chaos in the State.”
The BJP, he said, was firmly committed to the creation of Telangana and was equally committed to safeguarding the concerns and problems of the people of Seemandhra. “It is the duty of the Centre to address the genuine concerns, misgivings of Seemandhra people and safeguard the interests of the region while creating the new state of Telangana.”
Meanwhile, the YSR Congress took exception to the adjournment of the Lok Sabha sine die without “burning issues” being brought up. “We have given an adjournment motion on the undemocratic division of the Andhra Pradesh and a no-confidence motion against the UPA government. While the Speaker rejected the former, we have asked her to take up the second motion after the Lokpal Bill. But the house was adjourned sine die after the Bill was passed,” YSR Congress leaders M.V. Mysoora Reddy, S.P.Y. Reddy and Mekapati Rajmohan Reddy told reporters here on Wednesday.
The proposed adjournment motion, the YSR Congress said Article 3 of the Constitution was “misused” and Andhra Pradesh was being divided without an Assembly resolution. A committee for the division too had not been established, it added.
