Hyderabad: A day after the merger of the 12 Congress defectors with the TRS, the state Congress targeted Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan and Assembly Speaker P. Srinivas Reddy even as they challenged the legislators to resign and face elections.
AICC general secretary R.C. Khuntia, TPCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy and former minister Shabbir Ali spoke to the media on Friday and said that they would complain to the Lokpal over the defections. They alleged that Mr Narasimhan and Mr Srinivas Reddy did not respond to several complaints that they had lodged with regard to the defectors.
Persons who occupy high constitutional posts should follow the Constitution but both Mr Narasimhan and Mr Srinivas Reddy had failed to do so, they said.
Mr Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the Speaker had ignored the complaints made by the PCC and the Congress Legislature Party which had sought the disqualification of the defectors. The Governor ignored their complaints.
He said the 12 MLAs did not join the TRS at a time and instead went in separately. They cannot be considered a group. They have no right to submit a letter to the Speaker when they are facing complaints regarding defection, Mr Reddy said.
He said the Speaker should not have accepted the letter from the MLAs when the petition on disqualification against them was pending.
Mr Reddy said that they will file another petition in the High Court on the issue. Mr Khuntia said that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao was not able to digest a Dalit leader — Mr Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka — becoming Opposition leader.
He said that they have no objection if the MLAs join the TRS after resigning from the Assembly.
Former minister Shabbir Ali alleged that the Speaker was behaving like “a slave to the Chief Minister.” Reacting to TRS leaders’ allegations, Shabbir Ali said that in the past when TRS MLAs changed parties, the Speaker had disqualified them.
