Hyderabad: Friday was a day of some rapid political developments, all of them on expected lines.
The 10 TD legislators, who had switched loyalties over to the TRS, met under the leadership of Errabelli Dayakar Rao and decided to merge the TDLP into the TRS.
While they informed the Speaker about their decision and sought recognition as TRS legislators in the Assembly, the five other members of the TD, headed by newly-appointed TDLP leader A.
Revanth Reddy, met separately and requested the Speaker not to consider the merger proposal sent by Mr Dayakar Rao and action against the 10 “defected” MLAs under Anti-Defection Law.
In their letter to the Speaker, the group of 10 said that a resolution was adopted to merge the TDLP into the TRS and they should be recognised as members of the TRS Legislature Party with immediate effect.
They said they fulfilled all requirements enshrined in para 4 of the 10th schedule of the Constitution.
Though the letter said that they met on Thursday to adopt the merger resolution, these 10 MLAs had defected to the TRS separately, since 2014 June.
The letter was signed by Messrs Dayakar Rao, T. Prakash Goud, M. Kishan Reddy, K.P. Vivekananda Goud, S. Rajender Reddy, T. Srinivas Yadav, G. Sayanna, T. Krishna Reddy, M. Krishna Rao and Ch. Dharma Reddy.
In his letter, Mr Revanth Reddy requested the Speaker to act according to the Constitutional provisions and disqualify the 10 MLAs who defected to the TRS under the Anti-defection Law.
He also requested the Speaker not to consider the merger letter as it was against the spirit of 10th Schedule of the Constitution.
Later, Mr Revanth Reddy told reporters that unless the original party (TD) decides to merge into another party, the “so-called decision of the defectors” claiming two-third strength in Legislature Party to merge in TRS was null and void.
He said there were several instances where the courts had ruled against such unconstitutional mergers. “We will move court in case we don’t get justice from the Speaker,” Mr Revanth Reddy said.
Errabelli a betrayer: TD
District TD leaders on Friday lashed out at MLA Errabelli Dayakar Rao after he wrote to the Assembly speaker seeking merger of the TDLP into the TRSLP.
Senior leader R. Prakash Reddy described Mr Rao as a “betrayer”. “He used the party for his political gain and now says that the TD has lost the confidence of the public,” he said.
