Andhra Pradesh Governor prorogued the State Legislature rejecting Opposition’s Demand

Andhra Pradesh Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan prorogued the state legislature on 7 June 2011 thereby rejecting the demand from the main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP). TDP had requested the governor not to prorogue the state legislature to take up a no-confidence motion moved against the Congress government.

The governor had issued a notification to prorogue both the houses of the state legislature. The issuing of the notification implied that the TDP would have to wait till the monsoon session to take up its no-confidence motion.

The legislative assembly and the council had met for a special session on 4 June 2011 to elect the speaker and the deputy speaker of the assembly and chairman and vice-chairman of the council. The TDP, which had submitted notice for the no-confidence motion just before the assembly met had taken strong exception to the house not taking up the motion even after election of the speaker and the deputy speaker.

Leader of the opposition and TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu along with all the legislators had called on the governor to urge him to convene special session of the assembly to enable it to take up the no-confidence motion. Naidu had argued that under the assembly rules any no-confidence motion has to be taken up for debate and voting within 10 days from the day when it is submitted.

The TDP had on 6 June 2011 demanded that the governor not prorogue the house as this would be a violation of business rules and a negation of parliamentary procedure to favour the ruling party.

The opposition party had decided to move the no-confidence motion mentioning that the government had lost confidence of people by its utter failure to solve their problems, especially the problems of farmers. The move was significant in view of the claims by leaders of YSR Congress party that they had the required numbers to bring down the government.