Hyderabad: Irked by the defections of four Congress MLAs into the TRS, the Congress on Tuesday sought dismissal of K. Chandrasekhar Rao from the Chief Minister’s post for violating anti-defection laws.
Leader of Opposition K. Jana Reddy, deputy leader T. Jeevan Reddy met Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan on Tuesday evening and submitted a memorandum seeking appropriate action against the Chief Minister.
“It is clear now to the people of Telangana that under the facade of fighting for the separate Telangana state, Mr Chandrasekhar Rao has been only aspiring for self-aggrandisement.
He has given up all political etiquettes and is trying to kill all democratic traditions and practices,” the Congress MLAs said to the Governor.
Read: Congress threatens to sue Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao
On the other hand, the Congress sought immediate disqualification of Dornakal (ST) MLA D.S. Redya Naik and Chevella MLA K. Yadaiah under anti-defection law for joining the TRS.
As many as 10 MLAs from the Congress, the Telugu Desam and the BSP have joined the TRS, since the party came to power in 2014 general elections, bloating its strength from 63 to 73. For its original strength of 21, the Congress lost four legislators now.
Speaker Madhusudhana Chary reportedly told the Congress that he would go by the rule book. The “erring” MLAs had sought more time to reply to the notice already served to them in past.
The Speaker said the legislature parties and the MLAs would be heard before taking any decision.
Meanwhile CM clarifies to Governor
In an attempt to clarify the ‘defection issue’ that rocked the Assembly for the past two days, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao met Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan at Raj Bhavan late on Tuesday.
Mr Rao is said to have informed the Governor about the government’s plans to extend the ongoing Session by four more days. Sources said, Mr Rao informed the Governor that he had no role in the defections of leaders from other parties to the TRS.
He made it clear that he neither encouraged the defections nor lured any members from the Opposition parties to join the TRS. Clarifying the suspension of the 10 TD MLAs for a week, Mr Rao said that they misled the House by submitting wrong data.
