Mine is a vote against Congress and TDP, asserts JP

Lok Satta Party president and Kukatpally MLA Dr Jayaprakash Narayan on Thursday clarified that he had exercised the vote to reject both the ruling party and the Opposition in the no-confidence motion against the Kiran Kumar Reddy Government in the assembly.

Addressing media on the occasion of the party headquarters moving to Banajara Hills from Adarsh Nagar, Dr JP said that although many appreciated the stand he took in the Assembly, a few raised certain doubts.

"I am not an Independent candidate in the Assembly but represent the Lok Satta Party. Our party ideology is totally different from that of the ruling party and the Opposition. We believe that both of them are power-oriented and steeped in corruption,” he said.

The Lok Satta president said that both the parties have emasculated local governments and centralized power. “Both of them treat the poor as vote banks and are not serious about poverty eradication. They are guilty of ruining agriculture and the rural economy, despite their claim to speak on behalf of farmers,” he alleged.

"When a party obtained a clear mandate to govern, it should ordinarily serve the full term. A no-confidence motion should be a serious step, based on sound reasoning and aimed at protecting overwhelming public interest. It cannot be a tactical numbers game to merely change the players,” Dr JP said. If the elected Government were to be brought down, there should be a coherent and viable alternative with majority support which has the ability to govern. These conditions of constructive no-confidence are not fulfilled in the present case, he said.

"After deep thinking, the party has decided to utilize the opportunity provided by the no-trust motion to explain its policies without getting entangled in the numbers game of the ruling and Opposition parties. The Lok Satta movement had proposed almost 14 years ago that the people should be given the right to reject all the candidates in the field in an election. I exercised such a rejection vote in the Assembly," The Lok Satta president said.