In a major setback to Telangana Congress, four out of its six Member of Legislative Council (MLCs) have defected to Telangana Rashtriya Samithi (TRS) who registered a resounding victory in recently held Telangana Polls.
Four MLCs from Congress – MS Prabhakar Rao, T Santosh Kumar, K Damodar Reddy and Akula Lalitha – met the Telangana State Legislative Council Chairman Swamy Goud and submitted a representation to merge with the TRS. The move reduced the Congress with just two MLCs – Shabbir Ali and Ponguleti Sudhakar — whose term will end in March next year.
According to the law, if two-third members of the party requested for merging or defected it does not invites anti-defection law in the assembly.
The move has angered the Telangana Congress. Acting quickly, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee Chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy and Leader of Opposition Shabbir Ali met the Council Chairman Swamy Goud and requested him to disqualify four MLCs for their alleged anti-party activities. “We appeal to you to protect democracy in Telangana and reject their letter and disqualify the four members of the council for anti-party activities,” the letter signed by Uttam Kumar and Shabbir Ali read.
In a letter to Goud, N Uttam Kumar Reddy also stated that ‘We as are not a competent authority to merge party as the party’s Constitution does not allow the state Units to do so’
Whereas if the request of the four MLCs is accepted, then the Congress will lose its status of the Opposition party as 1/10th of the total house is mandatory to enjoy the status.
The Congress despited stitching an alliance has suffered a debacle in Recently Concluded Polls in the state with just bagging 19 seats out of 119 seats in the assembly. While K Chandrashekhar Rao led TRS registered a Landslide Victory bagging 88 seats.