Andhra: Kiran government defeats no-trust motion

HYDERABAD: After a 16- hour debate on the noconfidence motion tabled by TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu in the Assembly, the Kiran Kumar Reddy government defeated the motion by a convincing margin.The government received the support of 160 MLAs while the no-trust vote won the support of 122, with one MLA (Jayaprakash Narayan) remaining neutral.Most of the Congress MLAs who are in the Jagan Mohan Reddy camp came good on his pre-vote stance that they would vote to topple the government.These included 16 Congress MLAs, defying the party whip.The J campers from the Congress who voted against the government included Pilli Subhash Chandra Bose, Balineni Srinivasa Reddy, Konda Surekha, Kapu Ramachandra Reddy, Dharmana Krishna Das, Sucharita, G Srikanth Reddy, C Amarnath Reddy, Srinivasulu, Gurunath Reddy, P Ramakrishna Reddy, Mekapati Chandrasekhara Reddy, Golla Babu Rao, Chennakesava Reddy, Balaraju, Prasada Raju (all Cong).Other J campers -- drawn from other parties -- who supported the motion were: Balanagi Reddy (TDP) and B Shobha Nagireddy (PRP).One Jagan MLA, P Ravi (Cong), abstained from voting.The J campers who voted in favour of Kiran Kumar included Jaya Sudha, K Bharathi and K Satyavathi.The break-up of those voted for the no-confidence motion was: TDP 85, TRS 11, CPI 4, BJP 2, YSRC 1, J camp 16, PRP 1 and Independent 1.The break-up of the vote against the motion stood at: Congress 136, PRP 17, MIM 6 and Independent 1.While it always looked certain that the government would carry the day, the J-campers in the Congress kept the suspense going all day.But now that 16 of them have defied the party whip, they are liable for disqualification .