Hyderabad: The landside victory in the Telangana state Assembly elections has emboldened the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) to take on the Congress and reduce it to zero in the Legislative Council and ensure it does not have the status of the main Opposition party in the Assembly.
The Congress won 19 seats in the recently held Assembly elections. If it is to be considered the main opposition party, it must have at least 12 MLAs in the 119-member state Assembly. If eight Congress MLAs shift to the TRS, the Congress will lose the status of being the main Opposition and will be recognised as a group only. If the Congress gets Opposition status the Opposition leader will be given Cabinet rank and will get other facilities of a Cabinet minister.
In the 2014 assembly elections, the Congress won 21 seats and about 10 MLAs left it to join the TRS. According to TRS sources, several Congress MLAs are in touch with their leaders to join the party this time too. The TRS has successfully reduced the Congress to zero in the Legislative Council. At present the Congress has only two MLCs and both are retiring in March 2019, leaving the Congress with no representation in the Council, as is also the case with the Telugu Desam. The People's Front led by the Congress will not have any representation in the Council after March 2019.
There is much speculation in political circles that Congress MLAs will defect. Keeping this in view TPCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy hosted a dinner for all Congress MLAs and MLCs two days ago, to counsel them. The TRS is working on getting at least eight Congress MLAs to leave the party so that it loses opposition status.
The TRS has got a majority in the Assembly this time and does not need the support of defecting MLAs. In the 2014 elections, the TRS had won 63 seats when it needed 60 to form the government.
The party had encouraged defections then to make itself secure, and at the time the Assembly was dissolved earlier this year, the TRS's strength was up to 90. But this time the TRS is reportedly encouraging defections not because it needs the numbers but in order to demoralise the Congress leaders and cadre.
