Amid high drama, the BRS sponsored no-confidence motion against the Yellandu municipal chairman D. Venkateswar Rao of the ruling Congress failed owing to a lack of requisite quorum at the special meeting of the council in the coal town of Yellandu on Monday.
The meeting was convened to take up the no-confidence motion moved by around 19 councillors of the BRS; the municipality has a total 24 councillors.
Mr. Venkateswar Rao resigned from the BRS and joined the Congress along with three other BRS councillors just before the Assembly elections in November last year.
Earlier in the day, chaotic scenes unfolded at the municipal office after a few Congress local leaders gathered outside the venue of the meeting.
Later, several BRS councillors, led by former Yellandu MLA B. Haripriya, staged a protest in front of the main entrance gate. The family members of one BRS corporator also took part in it. They alleged that the Congress leaders forcibly took away one of their corporators at the behest of Congress MLA from Yellandu Koram Kanakaiah in a bid to restrain him from attending the no-confidence motion. However, the Congress local leaders rebutted the charges.
Amid the high tension, around 16 BRS councillors turned up at the venue of the meeting at the stipulated time. The lone CPI councillor in the Yellandu municipal council reportedly abstained from the no-confidence motion.
According to official sources, the special council meeting could not be held owing to a lack of the requisite quorum (17 councillors) and, as such, the no-confidence motion failed.
A video showing a person, believed to be a corporator, purportedly being taken away in a car outside the municipal office in the coal town went viral on social media later in the day.
