YSR Congress party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy is learnt to have dropped his plan in making his party MLAs resign from their assembly membership on the plank of special category status to AP to put a psychological pressure on Telugu Desam Party president and chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
According to reports doing rounds in media circles, Jagan suggested during a meeting with senior party functionaries that all the party MLAs, including himself, would resign from their seats to gain sympathy among the people.
“In any case, Naidu might not dare accept the resignations, as he had no guts to face the by-elections. Moreover, he would be under psychological pressure to get all the defected MLAs also to resign. If he doesn’t do that, he would be exposed in the people,” Jagan is learnt to have told them.
However, it is learnt many MLAs did not buy Jagan’s argument as they felt people might not take their resignations seriously if they are not accepted.
They recalled the resignation of the YSRC MPs from Lok Sabha, which are yet to get accepted and it had little impact on the people.
At the same time, there is also another apprehension that Naidu might, in fact, turn these resignations to his advantage.
Once the YSRC MLAs submit their resignations, he would wait for a couple of months and then get the resignations accepted by Speaker Kodela Siva Prasada Rao, who is anyway a TDP man.
Since the vacancies arise at a time when the state would be going to polls in less than a year, the Election Commission will not conduct the by-polls.
Once the resignations of the YSRC MLAs are accepted, the party will have no representation in the Assembly. Then, the 23 defected YSRC MLAs would submit a letter to the Speaker saying they were merging the YSR Legislature Party with the TDLP.
Once the merger is formalised, the Speaker would dismiss the disqualification petitions pending against them and the courts, too, would be forced to formalise the defections!
