Kiran defeats No Confidence Motion by 38 votes

The Kiran Kumar Reddy Government has survived the No Confidence Motion moved by the Telugu Desam Party.

After marathon discussions of 15 hours and 55 minutes the No Confidence Motion was defeated by 38 votes. While 160 members voted against the motion, 122 MLAs voted in its favour. 

After several rounds of discussion, allegations, counter-allegations, passing of remarks and protests, the voting took place at 1 am on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday.

A confident Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy had announced an hour before the voting that his government would defeat the motion. "You don't enjoy support either from the people or here in House," he told Opposition Leader N Chandrababu Naidu after making an hour-long speech listing out various schemes taken up by his government.

On the other side, it seems that even Chandrababu Naidu was sure that his No Confidence Motion would be defeated. "We have moved the No Confidence Motion for the sake of farmers. We don't care whether we lose it or win," he said.

After the end of discussion, Speaker Nadendla Manohar asked for headcount starting with those who are in favour of the motion. The MLAs were asked to rise and the assembly officials took the headcount by visiting their seats. The original strength of those in favour of the motion stood at 107 including 86 MLAs of TDP, 12 of TRS, 4 of CPI, 2 of BJP and one MLA each of CPM and YSR Congress party and an independent MLA.

Similarly, Congress and its allies should have had 179 votes including 153 of Congress party, 18 of PRP, 7 of MIM and one independent member. However, at least 17 Congress MLAs and one PRP member voted in favour of the motion. Jayaprakash Narayan of Lok Satta remained neutral. Five MLAs including Mumtaz Ahmed Khan (MIM) and Suman Rathod (TDP) abstained from the voting.