TDP may pull out of NDA, backs YSR Congress’s no-trust motion

New Delhi: The YSR Congress Party of Andhra Pradesh on Thursday served a formal notice of no-trust motion against the Modi government for not granting special status to the state. Even as YSR raised the ante, Chandrababu Naidu of Telugu Desam Party indicated that he may pull out of the National Democratic Alliance at the Centre, so that it can back the motion.

Incidentally, TDP and YSR Congress are arch rivals. But Naidu has come under pressure from YSR Congress chief Jagan Reddy, who had dared him to pull out of the NDA. Both leaders are engaged in a game of one-upmanship on the issue of special status. But even together, the two Andhra parties are short of the minimum 50 MPs required to get such a motion admitted. (YSR Congress has just 9 MPs in the Lok Sabha and the TDP 16.)

Also Read: TDP-BJP divorce: How it will affect the political scenario in southern states

The motion may not fructify even otherwise, as the government is planning to shut Parliament on Friday morning before the motion is put to vote for its admission. YSR Congress leader YV Subba Reddy, who wrote to the Lok Sabha Secretary-General to put the no-confidence motion on Friday’s agenda of the House, however, said his party chief  YS Jaganmohan Reddy has written to leaders of all parties for their support to the motion.

He hinted that the Trinamool Congress of Mamata Banerjee with 34 MPs may back the motion; Jaganmohan is also pressing the Congress, which has 48 MPs, for its support. The Congress sources, however, said the party was not inclined as the motion was sure to flounder in view of the brute majority of the BJP and its allies. Naidu has, meanwhile, called a politburo meeting in Amaravati on Friday to take a final call on exiting from the NDA. According to media sources, he may also call on BSP chief Mayawati and SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav in a bid to forge new alliances.