Speaker Nadendla Manohar last night disqualified 16 congress MLAs who defied the party whip during the Dec 5 no-confidence motion in the assembly and voted against the government. The Speaker also accepted the resignation of Sobha Nagi Reddy, MLA of the erstwhile PRP.

The disqualified MLAs remained loyal to the YSR Congress party president Mr. YS Jaganmohan Reddy all along while continuing as congress members officially. The axing of the rebel MLAs has been pending for the last two months.

The speaker took the decision as per the rule 2 (1) (A) and (B) of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution. PRP leadership also sought the disqualification of Sobha Nagi Reddy but the Speaker accepted her resignation fearing legal problems.

The Speaker consulted several legal experts before taking the decision late Friday night. The 16 MLAs disqualified are: Dharmana Krishna Das (Narasannapet), Golla Babu Rao (Payakarao Pet), Pilli Subhash Chandra Bose (Ramachandrap-uram), M. Prasada Raju (Narsapur), Terlam Bala-raju (Polavaram), D. Sucha-rita (Prathipadu), Pinnelli Ramakrishna Reddy (Mac-herla), Balineni Srinivas-ulu Reddy (Ongole), Mekapati Chandrasekhara Reddy (Udayagiri), G. Srinivasulu (Kodur), Gadikota Srikanth Reddy (Rayachoti), Akepati Amar-nadha Reddy (Rajampet), B. Gurunadha Reddy (Ananta-pur), Kapu Ramachandra Reddy (Rayadurg), Y. Chennakesava Reddy (Yemmiganur) and Ms Konda Surekha (Parkal).

The election commission will have to conduct by polls in 17 assembly seats and the Nellore Lok Sabha seat before Sep 2. (J)