The Andhra Pradesh Assembly Speaker Tammineni Sitaram disqualified four rebel MLAs on Monday, with two from the ruling YSR Congress and two from the opposition Telugu Desam party.
The TDP had filed a petition seeking disqualification of the four legislators who had been elected on the party ticket but started acting as members of the YSR Congress without officially resigning from the TDP. On the other hand, four YSR Congress MLAs switched to the TDP after realizing they would not be given tickets for the upcoming elections.
These MLAs had been critical of their parties and had started becoming friendly with their rival parties. The disqualified YSR Congress members are Anam Ramanarayana Reddy, Undavalli Sridevi, Kotamreddy Sridhar Reddy, and Mekapati Chandrasekhar Reddy. The TDP MLAs who were disqualified are Maddali Giridhara Rao, Karanam Balaramakrishna Murthy, Vallabhaneni Vamsi, and Vasupalli Ganesh Kumar.
The Speaker issued notices to these MLAs after complaints from their respective parties. After lengthy arguments, the Speaker made the decision just a few months before the Assembly elections.
