There was a strong rumour in the state assembly on Thursday that some of the rebel Congress MLAs who had submitted their resignation letters from their assembly membership would withdraw the same in the wake of reports that the Speaker might accept their resignations.

The names of Chintalapudi MLA Maddali Rajesh and Eluru MLA Alla Nani are learnt to have met Speaker Nadendla Manohar and told him that they were withdrawing their resignations.

Sources said it could be part of the YSR Congress party strategy as it wants as many as rebel MLAs as possible to be available in the House for voting in favour of no-confidence motion. Otherwise, if the Speaker accepts the resignations, the opposition strength and the effective strength of the assembly would come down and the Kiran government could easily survive.

That is precisely why the YSR Congress party had not included their names in the list of MLAs who served notices for no-confidence motion. However, Rajesh and Nani denied the reports of withdrawing the resignations. They were prepared to face the consequences of their resignations, the MLAs said.