Hyderabad: The 12 Congress MLAs who defected to the TRS said on Wednesday that the Telangana state unit of the party was plagued by infighting and they were fed up with the group politics and lack of effective leadership in the party. They said these were their reason for quitting.
Rega Kantha Rao, Gandra Venkataramana Reddy, Vanama Venkateswara Rao, P Sabitha Indra Reddy, Atram Sakku, Sudheer Reddy and others who have joined the TRS spoke to media persons in the TRS Legislature Party office and said that they merged the Congress Legislature Party with the TRS Legislature Party in strict adherence to the Indian Constitution.
They said they would file defamation cases against the Congress leaders in the state if the latter continued to spread propaganda against them.
Rega Kantha Rao said all the Congress legislators were vexed with the Telangana Congress leadership or lack of it, which prompted them to join the TRS led by an efficient leader like Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao.
He said, “We are answerable to people who voted for us. Hence, we are explaining to them that we joined the TRS as per the Constitution only for the development of our constituencies.”
Maintaining that all 12 MLAs were ready to tender their resignations and contest the by-elections whenever needed, he said there was no future for politicians who want to serve their constituents, in the Congress party.
He said neither TPCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy nor CLP leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka was able to get the Congress candidates to win in their own constituencies during the recent Parishad elections.
Gandra Venkataramana Reddy said the Congress had been suffering defeats repeatedly since 2014, but the state leadership failed to analyse the causes and rectify the flaws. He said the state Congress leadership would not admit its flaws and has failed to strengthen and consolidate its voter base.
Maintaining that there was nothing unconstitutional in the Speaker merging the CLP with the TRSLP, he pointed out that there were similar instances of mergers earlier in Goa and Tripura.
