4 Congress MLCs defect to TRS, merge legislative party

Hyderabad: In a jolt to the Congress, party MLCs Akula Lalita and T. Santosh Kumar joined the TRS and merged the Congress Legislative Party of the Legislative Council into the ruling patry. Two others, Mr K. Damodar Reddy and Mr M.S. Prabhakar had joined the TRS in 2017 and 2016.

In a day of swift developments, two Congress MLCs gave a letter to Council Chairman A. Swamy Goud stating that they were joining the ruling party and sought merger with the TRS. State Congress president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy rushed to Mr Goud but to no avail. 

The Council released a bulletin in the evening conveying that the CLP of the Legislative Council had merged into the TRS Legislative Party of Legislative Council.

The Congress will now technically lose the Opposition status in the Council with only two members remaining. The party had seven MLCs, of whom four have defected. Of the remaining three, Mr Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy resigned recently after winning the Assembly election. Only Mr Shabbir Ali and Mr Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy are left in the Council.

The action began with Ms Lalitha and Mr Santosh Kumar meeting Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao at Pragathi Bhavan on Thursday. They met Mr Goud along with Mr Prabhakar Rao and Damodar Reddy and submitted a letter for merger of the CLP in the Council into the TRSLP.

The letter, signed by the four MLCs, said they met with Leader of Opposition in Council Shabbir Ali and Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy and discussed the merger of the CLP into TRSLP. They said four of them had agreed for the merger. Ms Lalitha, Mr Santosh Kumar, Mr Prabhakar and Mr Damodar Reddy requested Mr Goud to merge the CLP under Paragraph 4 of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution, saying that they had the required strength.

Iin the evening, a bulletin was released by the Secretary to State Legislature, saying that the Mr Goud had recognised the merger. The bulletin confirmed that Ms Lalitha, Mr Santosh Kumar, Mr Prabhakar Rao and Mr Damodar Reddy would be treated to be the members of TRSLP in the Council and allotted the seats in the House accordingly.

The TPCC tried to stall the developments. TPCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy and Mr Shabbir Ali met Mr Goud after the MLCs gave the merger request. They said no such CLP meeting took place to discuss over the merger and requested him not to accept the merger. 

In a letter given to Mr Goud, they stated that the Chairman of the Council or the Speaker in the Assembly were not competent to merge a political party. As per the constitution of the Congress, the state units have no power to merge with other parties.

After the bulletin was issued, the Congress is planning to approach the High Court. Mr Uttam Kumar Reddy told mediapersons: “Mr Prabhakar Rao has joined the TRS in 2016, Mr Damodar Reddy in 2017. We had requested the disqualification of these two members long back and the petitions are still pending with the Council chairman. How can they be in a CLP meeting? Ms Lalitha or others who have submitted the merger request don’t have any power to hold the CLP meeting.”

The defector MLCs said they had taken the right decision. Mr Kumar said, “The alliance with the Telugu Desam has ruined the Congress. How can the alliance be formed without informing anyone? The Congress lacks leadership and so we decided to join the TRS.”

Mr Prabhakar said, “Two-thirds of the members (of the CLP in the Legislative Council) have come forward for merger. According to the Constitution, two-third of the members can take the decision and we took it.”

Ms Lalitha said, “All people are with the TRS and we wanted to be with the people and hence, we have taken this decision.”