The defection of Congress MLCs into the Telangana Rashtra Samithi was not totally unexpected by the Congress leadership, but what shocked them was the proposal to merge the legislature party with the TRS LP.
Soon after the four MLCs met legislative council chairman Swamy Goud and requested that their group is merged with the TRS, Telangana PCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy and Congress floor leader in council Mohammad Shabbir Ali also met him and requested that the merger proposal of defected MLCs should not be accepted.
“The council chairman is said to be planning to issue a bulletin approving the merger. How can he do that? The defected MLCs have no right to hold the legislature party meeting without the consent of the party leadership and decide to merge it with the TRS. We requested the chairman to go by the legal provisions and act accordingly,” Uttam Kumar Reddy said.
Shabbir Ali wondered whether KCR government had any respect towards democratic practices.
“How can just four MLCs of a 135-year old party to decide on the merger of its legislative party with the TRS? Ours is a national party and decision on merger of the legislature party cannot be taken by a few MLCs,” he said.
They pointed out that the Congress party had given a representation long back over the defection of its leaders into the TRS.
“But no action was taken yet. At the same time, when the TRS gives its representation on the same issue, the chairman reacted within hours and sent notices to those who joined the Congress,” Shabbir Ali criticized.