Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday justified the merger of 12 Congress MLAs into the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and said there was nothing unconstitutional about it.
He said this in response to Congress’ Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka who while supporting the Telangana Municipalities Bill said the ruling party should discourage defections and the new state should act as a role model for other states.
TRS members took serious exception to Mr Mallu Bhatti’s statement.
Though Speaker Pocha-ram Srinivas Reddy said that he will not allow deviating from the subject, Mr Rao intervened and said the Congress was losing its force and its leaders needed to set things right internally and not blame the TRS for the defections. Telangana state will undoubtedly sta-nd as a role model for other states either way, he added.
After the Assembly elections, Mr Rao said, several Opposition MLAs requested him to allow them into the party. “I categorically told them we had 88 seats and with support from two independent MLAs we had enough strength in the House. No member of the Opposition has joined our party. The 12 MLAs who defected from Congress approached the Speaker,” he stated.
Maintaining that the merger was as per the 10th Schedule of the Constit-ution, Mr Rao recalled the merger of the Telugu Desam Rajya Sabha members with the BJP and the recent merger of Congress MLAs with the BJP in Goa. “Although the matter is sub-judice, I must explain. Mr Mallu Bhatti has indeed been treated unjustly. However, we cannot do much about the split,” he said.
Congress MLAs, however, staged a walkout from the Assembly accusing the TRS of suppressing the voice of the opposition and the Speaker was not able to come to their rescue.
