Telangana Congress MLCs squabble on Shabbir Ali as Leader of Opposition

Five Congress MLCs Mr Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy, Mr Farooq Hussain, Mr M.S. Prabhakar Rao, Mr M. Rangareddy, and Mr T. Santosh Kumar have written to party’s central leaders that it would be better for the party to wait till the Election Commission held polls for filling up the vacancies before naming someone as the Leader of the Opposition.

These five, according to party sources, do not want Mr Shabbir Ali to be the next Opposition leader. They have also said that before appointing someone, the party needs to ascertain issues like loyalty, commitment, service to party etc.

Mr Srinivas, whose term comes to an end on March 29, was sure to get renominated and continue in his post. But to his misfortune, the Election Commission, while announcing the poll schedule for MLC vacancies in AP, did not do so for Telangana as a clarification sought from the Union home ministry was still pending.

The EC has said it will announce the schedule as and when the home ministry gives clarification on filling the six seats from MLAs’ quota. This particular delay was the main cause of worry for Mr D. Srinivas and his supporters.

Normally, either the PCC or AICC, or for that matter the office-bearers of the legislature party, informs the Legislative Council chairman to recognise so and so as their leader and also as Leader of Opposition. Fearing that someone may replace D. Srinivas, the group of MLCs decided to block the process and accordingly wrote to the party high command.