Andhra: No-trust vote today

HYDERABAD: On the eve of the no-trust vote in the Assembly, the Kiran Kumar Reddy government breathed a bit easy with the Praja Rajyam Party component of the Congress declaring its support to it and the number of MLAs in the Jagan camp further dwindling.After securing undisclosed promises from the ruling party’s backroom managers, erstwhile Praja Rajyam leader K Chiranjeevi came down from his hard-to-get perch Sunday night and declared, “I made a promise in the past that I will back the government whenever it faces a threat.That time has come now.And I will do what I promised.” Accordingly he issued a whip to all Praja Rajyam MLAs including B Shobha Nagi Reddy who is in the Jagan camp.There are 18 MLAs in the PRP including Chiranjeevi.The actor-politician, before declaring his support to the government, had several rounds of talks with chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy, PCC president Botcha Satyanarayana, AICC general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad and Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel.Though it was expected that Chiranjeevi would be won over, the Congress continued to be nagged by the Jagan Mohan Reddy factor.Though the number of MLAs with the Kadapa MP came down from 21 on Saturday to 18 on Sunday (going by the number of MLAs who attended a meeting called by their boss in the evening), the Congress kept making efforts to spirit away more J campers.Those efforts seemed to pay off in the evening with Prakasam district MLA Buchepalli Sivaprasada Reddy surfacing in the Congress camp and saying he did not desire the collapse of the government.Signals from within the Jagan camp indicated that there is little belief that Monday’s vote will bring down the government.