In the history of Andhra Pradesh Assembly, till now the Congress, which has been power for more than two-third of the time, it never moved no-confidence motion. Till now only Telugu Desam Party has moved such a motion three times, against Congress government. Now, a non-TDP party moved the motion, creating history.

Of the 264 members present, 58 voted for the motion while those who opposed it formed the majority number of 142 members. The comfortable victory margin secured by the Kiran Kumar government was largely due to the 64-member strong Telugu Desam abstaining from the vote though present in the house while the 7-member MIM were present when the debate began but boycotted the proceedings midway. At least 15 legislators belonging to the Congress (9) and TDP (6) voted in favour of the no confidence motion.

The marathon debate that lasted for more than 12 hours saw a lot of mudslinging, personal attacks rather than meaningful discussions. Both the TD and the Congress dedicated their time to target Jagan Mohan Reddy and his alleged amassing of wealth giving scope to YSRC to claim that both parties were afraid of people giving massive mandate in favour of Jagan in the next elections.

Though the TD criticised that the government failed on all counts it said it stayed away from the motion because the TRS and the YSRC were insincere in fighting against the government. It vowed to bring no trust motion on its own at an appropriate time.

In his one-and-half hour reply to the debate, Kiran Kumar Reddy dwelt at length on the various programmes and policies initiated by his government, and said that any government that works for the people is bound to be returned to power. Apart from the chief minister, those who spoke during the debate were K Annaba (Congress), Etela Rajender (TRS), Y S Vijayamma (YSR Congress), G Mallesh (CPI), Lakshminarayana (BJP), J Ranga Reddy (CPM), Jayaprakash Narayanan (Loksatta) and Nagam Janardhan Reddy (independent).

The 15-members, who defied their party whip in voting include Gottipati Ravikumar, Dwarampudi Chandrasekhar Reddy, B Sivaprasada Reddy, Alla Nani, Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy, Sujaya Krishna Rangarao, Jogi Ramesh, Ch Rajesh and Perni Nani (all Congress), T. Vanita, N Amarnath Reddy, Kodali Nani, A Praveen Kumar Reddy, Y Bala Nagireddy and Sairaju (all TDP).  All these MLAs are likely to face disqualification of their membership if their parties complain against them for violating whip.

Meanwhile, three TDP rebels, SVenugopalachari, K Harishwar Reddy and Chinnam Ramakotaiah abstained from the House as did Loksatta member Jayaprakash Narayan and Nagam Janardhan Reddy though they had seconded the no-confidence motion earlier in the day. All these MLAs are likely to face Among the significant absentees from the House on Friday were TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu, who is on his pada yatra and Congress member Marri Shashidhar Reddy, who is away in New Delhi being the Vice Chairman of National Disaster Management Authority.

Both the TRS and YSRCP were shocked when the government proposed for immediate discussion on their motion, at the Business Advisory Committee meeting of the Assembly, convened by the Speaker N Manohar after admitting no-confidence motion. In face, both the parties, who moved the motion, suggested to have lengthy discussion some time during the next month, after the approval of the budget, to be presented on Monday.

However, Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy said that government can not go ahead with the budget when the no-confidence motion is hanging on it. In a swift move, he succeeded in having discussion with in halfen hour after the BAC meeting, which was concluded after mid-night. Thus, he moved tactfully unabling TRS and YSRCP to take political mileage by creating political uncertainty for couple of weeks in the state. This has helped for stability of the government for the present.

The TRS, BJP and the YSRC leaders, however, asserted that they were successful in exposing the strong nexus between the ruling Congress and the Telugu Desam while highlighting the burning public issues.