TDP moves privilege motion against Andhra Pradesh CM; 11 MLAs suspended

Eleven TDP members were suspended from the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly for a day on Wednesday even as they moved a privilege motion against Leader of the House Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy for misleading the House regarding the death of 18 people in West Godavari district.

For the third consecutive day, the Telugu Desam Party opposition legislators raised the issue regarding the deaths in the Assembly and said the Chief Minister misled the House by claiming the deaths were “natural” when they were in fact caused by spurious arrackThey moved a privilege motion against the Chief Minister over this and raised slogans.

Speaker T Seetaram then announced the suspension of 11 TDP MLAs for the second day in a row. On Monday, five TDP MLAs were suspended from the Assembly for the duration of the Budget session till March 25.

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Deputy Chief Minister K Narayana Swamy, who handles the Excise portfolio, said he would “expose” the TDP in the House tomorrow. “I will quit politics if you could answer my charges,” he said.

The Assembly then continued the discussion on the Budget after the TDP members’ suspension Talking to reporters outside the Assembly, the TDP members alleged that the Chief Minister spoke: "complete lies" regarding the deaths in the Jangareddygudem area of West Godavari district.

“While it is clear that these people died upon consuming spurious arrack, the Chief Minister claimed the deaths were due to natural causes. This is totally misleading and hence we moved the privilege motion,” they said. TDP general secretary and member of Legislative Council Nara Lokesh wondered why the police registered cases if the deaths were "natural", as claimed by the Chief Minister.

"The Chief Minister should in fact resign and order a judicial inquiry into the deaths,” Lokesh said