The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) on Saturday presented its argument for the disqualification of three of its MLCs and demanded legal action for 'anti-party' activities as they joined the Congress ahead of the Legislative Assembly elections held on December 7 last year. Members of the TRS met with Council Chairman K Swamy Goud and demanded the expulsion of the MLCs who defected.
However, the Council Chairman said that he would consult constitutional experts and reserved his decision. Four MLCs, Ramulu Naik, Konda Murali, Yadava Reddy and Bhupathi Reddy had defected to the Congress last year. While Murali, who defected along with his wife and then incumbent MLA Konda Surekha, resigned his post, the other three continue to be MLCs on paper, even though the TRS announced that they were suspended.
Speaking to reporters, Government Whip and TRS MLC Palla Rajeshwar Reddy said that the people elected the four MLCs because they were contesting on a TRS ticket and therefore, their defection should ensure that they were disqualified.
It was in October last year that Ramulu Naik, one of the founding members of the TRS party, was sacked unceremoniously based on the allegation that he was sabotaging the party. He later joined the Congress.
"There were a few other times where I objected to KTR's views, and as he couldn’t take those objections, he ensured that I was removed from the party. He (KTR) destroyed my 20-year political career within 20 minutes, KCR of course would listen to his son and not me, right? So they terminated me immediately,” Ramulu told TNM at the time.
In a major blow to the Congress in Telangana last month, four out of six remaining Members of MLCs from the party defected to the ruling TRS, after it swept the Assembly elections in the state. The four MLCs, led by Akula Lalitha (who had contested the Armoor seat on a Congress ticket) met Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and shifted their loyalties.
This has left the Congress with only two MLCs — Shabbir Ali and Ponguleti Sudhakar — whose term will end in March this year.