Opposition YSR Congress today urged Assembly speaker Kodela Sivaprasada Rao to disqualify the MLAs who crossed over to the Telugu Desam party recently. A delegation of MLAs, led by deputy floor leader Jyothula Nehru met the speaker at his office in Assembly and presented a complaint seeking action against the eight MLAs under the provisions of Anti-defection Act. The letter was given in the name of Amarnath Reddy , whip of the party.

Talking to media later, Jyothula Nehur expressed confidence that speaker would take action and disqualify the members from the Assembly as per the rules as early as possible. ” We have provided the proof for the crossing over of  the MLAs to Telugu Desam Party. Their  action will attract the provisions of Anti-defection law,” he said.

Nehru said the party would take a decision on the tabling of the no-confidence motion against the speaker based on his action. He said the party was ready to move the no-confidence motion and a whip had been issued to all the members of YSRC in view of the no-confidence motion.

TheYSRC MLAs who changed loyalties are : Bhuma Nagireddy, Bhuma Akhila Priya, Jaleel Khan, C Adinarayana Reddy, David Raju, P Jayaramulu , Mani Gandhi and Kalamata Venkataramana. All these MLAs, the YSRCP said, had got elected to the Assembly on YSRCP symbol and were not supposed to join any other party. ” Now that they joined the TDP, they are liable to be disqualified automatically from the Assembly,” they said in the letter submitted to the speaker.

“Byelection is the right test for the MLAs who defected to the TDP. The ruling party has purchased these MLAs by offering the crores of rupees like people purchase cattle in the village fairs. The speaker assured them he would take action as per the rule, Nehru said. The early action against immoral and unethical step of crossing over to the other party would be an eye opener to TDP president Chandrababu Naidu who claims himself  paragon of virtues, he said and added that they had presented, voice proof as well as media reports and video clippings for defection of the MLAs.