CLP Merger Into TRS: Speaker Is KCR Stooge, Says Congress

Reacting to the merger of the Congress Legislature Party into the ruling TRS, senior Congress leader Mohammed Shabbir Ali on Friday alleged that Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy had acted as a "stooge" of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao.

Shabbir Ali also alleged that the Speaker had merged the CLP into the TRS without following the existing rules and had not considered any of the complaints lodged by them, and wondered how the Speaker and the Governor of the State enjoying constitutional posts did not consider the constitutional provisions.

Referring to the statements of TRS leaders that the Congress had encouraged defections during former Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy's regime, Shabbir Ali reminded them that by-elections were held after the disqualification of the defecting MLAs by the then Speaker.

He said the TRS had begun its "Operation Akarsh" in March of this year and ended it on Thursday. He also said that the Congress would go to Supreme Court, and expose the TRS in the people's court as well, to seek justice.