Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and Pradesh Congress Committee president Botsa Satyanarayana are pretty confident of sailing through the no-confidence motion proposed to be moved by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi in the budget session commencing on Wednesday.

Their confidence stems from the fact that the Congress party would have enough numbers to survive, if the resignations of five rebel MLAs -- Sujaya Vijaya Krishna Ranga Rao (Bobbili), Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas alias Nani (Eluru), Maddala Rajesh Kumar (Chintalapudi), Dwarampudi Chandrasekhara Reddy (Kakinada Urban) and Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy (Punganur) are accepted and four others – Perni Venkata Ramaiah alias Nani (Machilipatnam), Buchepalli Siva Prasada Reddy (Darsi), Gottipati Ravi Kumar (Addanki) and Jogi Ramesh (Pedana), who joined the YSR Congress party, are disqualified.

This would bring down the effective strength of the assembly to 285 and the Congress needs only 143 MLAs to survive. After getting rid of nine MLAs, its strength would come down to 146. Besides, it has the support of one independent MLA K Srisailam Goud and one rebel TDP MLA Chinnam Ramakotaiah. So, with 148 members, it can easily sail through.

However, the problem comes when some of the Congress MLAs suddenly vote against the government in the assembly during voting on no-confidence motion. It is here that the YSR Congress party and the TRS are playing politics. The Jagan party is already in touch with half a dozen other Congress MLAs promising them tickets in the next elections. Similarly, at least three to four MLAs are likely to go with the Telangana Rashtra Samithi. If they vote in favour of no-trust motion, the Kiran government will collapse.