Congress goes to HC to stop TRS merger

Hyderabad: The TS Congress approached the High Court on Tuesday with the apprehension that the Speaker would issue a notification regarding the merger of the Congress Legislature Party with the TRS Legislature Party in the Assembly.

TS Congress president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, and CLP leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka filed a petition for a declaration that the merger of a political party/legislature party with another political party is predominantly the statutory duty conferred on the Election Commission and not a legislative function of the Speaker of the Assembly.

They sought directions to the Speaker to decide the disqualification petitions pending against 10 Congress MLAs who have publicly announced that they would be joining the TRS, before passing any orders of merging the Congress with the TRS in the Assembly as expeditiously as possible, preferably within 90 days as decided by the Supreme Court.

The Congress leaders also sought a direction to the Speaker to give notice to them on the caveat filed before the Assembly tribunal before passing any orders regarding the political status of the defecting MLAs. Mr Uttam Kumar Reddy and Mr Mallu Bhatti listed as respondents, the Secretary of the Legislature, the Speaker, the Election Commission of India. Also listed as respondents are the legislators who said they would join the TRS: Devireddy Sudheer Reddy, Chirumarthy Lingaiah, Hari Priya Banoth, Kandala Upender Reddy, Patlolla Sabitha Indra Reddy, Rega Kantha Rao, Athram Sakku, Beeram Harshavardhan Reddy, Vanama Venkateswara Rao and Jalala Surender.

In the petition, the Congress leaders brought to the notice of the court that they had filed disqualification petitions on April 21 and 22 against the 10 Congress MLAs before the Speaker for consideration on the grounds of anti-party activities.

However, apprehensive that with the support of the ruling party, the Speaker may issue a notification for the merger of the legislative party, they had mentioned the MLCs merger issue in the petition.

"The TRS party and its supremo want to act unconstitutionally by merging a legislature party into another legislature party in the legislature. It may not be out of place to mention here that an identical situation has been taken by the TRS Legislature Party in the Legislative Council of Telangana which is the subject matter of a writ petition before this court," the petitioners mentioned.

The petitioners said that the Congress legislators who announced that they are going to join the TRS have been given the responsibility and made in-charges of their respective assembly constituencies and handed over B Forms to be given to the prospective aspirants of mandal parishad and zilla parishad territorial constituencies and panchayat contestants on behalf of the TRS.

The matter will be heard on Tuesday by a division bench headed by acting Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan.