The Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council has adopted a resolution moved by the main opposition – the Telugu Desam Party – disapproving the YSR Congress government’s policies on the 3 capital bill, that was pushed and passed in the legislative assembly on Monday.
YSRCP enjoys absolute majority in the lower house while TDP controls the majority of the seats in the upper house.
Rule 71 allows for a debate on disapproving government’s bills. 27 members voted in favour of the resolution and 13 members voted against it. Nine members abstained from the voting process.
Two TDP members chose to cross-vote on the resolution, two abstained on health grounds, and one of them resigned from the party before voting.
The three-capital decentralisation bill and the AP Capital Region Development Authority Act Repeal bill will be debated in the Legislative Council on Wednesday. There has however been some uproar on the unavailability of the live telecast for the council proceedings. While the government cited technical issues, the protesting TDP have asserted to stall the house proceedings until the live telecast is resumed.
The resolution is however only a temporary setback, as a rejection of the bills in the Legislative Council would bring them back to the assembly for re-introduction, and passing them again in the assembly will eliminate the role of the council in deciding their fates altogether.
If the TDP sends the bills to the select committee, it would at best be a delaying tactic, and the three-capital plan will eventually materialize with a setback of a few months.
As per the proposal, the executive capital will be shifted to Visakhapatnam, and the judiciary will be moved to Kurnool; Amaravati will continue as the legislative capital.
— India Legal Bureau