Andhra Pradesh Assembly Speaker N. Manohar on Saturday disqualified 15 MLAs who violated the whip issued by their respective parties. Nine of them belonged to the ruling Congress party while six of the main opposition, Telugu Desam Party. The speaker announced this at a media interaction in Hyderabad.

The Speaker said, the decision has been taken after giving the MLAs due opportunity to explain their stand. These MLAs had violated the party whip and voted in favour of the “no confidence motion” on March 15 this year. The Telengana Rastra Samithi had brought the no-confidence motion and was defeated even as a total 18 MLAs of both Congress and TDP violated the party whip to vote in favour of it. He also said, the decision in the case of three more MLAs is pending as the inquiry is still on. The decision has come in the backdrop of the second phase of the Assembly budget session beginning from Monday.

Earlier, 19 MLAs were disqualified for their anti-party activities during the present term of the Assembly. With this, Congress party's strength has come down to 146 in the 294 member Assembly. Our Correspondent says, the chances of holding by-election for these vacancies appear to be meagre as the general election in the state is to be held in less than a year.