CM Should Make Six Defecting MLAs Resign: KTR

BRS working president K T Rama Rao today lashed out at the ruling Congress for indulging in political defections.

"If CM Revanth Reddy is a real man, he should get the six defecting MLAs of our party to resign and face by-elections," he said.

He also said that the Telangana society would take the responsibility of permanently burying the six MLAs politically by beating them with votes.

KTR was participating in the district BRS meeting held at the Jagtial district headquarters, and addressed the gathering.

Speaking on the occasion, he asked the defecting MLAs to resign from their posts and face elections.

Referring to the induction of 12 Congress MLAs into the BRS during their own rule, KTR claimed that they were inducted as per the law of the country, and that the CLP consisting of the 12 MLAs of the Congress was constitutionally merged into the BRS. "In 2018, the Congress had won 18 MLA seats. Of those, 12 MLAs joined our party as per the Constitution. They did not come to us and join one by one. KCR did not do that. In 2014, too, two-thirds of the TDP and BSP MLAs too merged with our party as per the Constitution. 10 of the 15 MLAs from the TDP and two from the BSP merged with the BRS. We did not flout the Constitution or the law," he said.

He also said that it was the Congress that had started the culture of the defections in the country, and that former PM Indira Gandhi had sown the seeds of the poison of defections. "MLAs of other parties had been inducted into the Congress by Indira Gandhi in Haryana. It was the Congress that brought about the culture of defections," he added.

"In 2004, the Congress formed an alliance with the TRS. After 26 TRS candidates won the elections, the then Congress government tried to poach 10 of our MLAs. After 2014, Revanth Reddy was caught trying to buy an MLA for Rs 50 lakh and went to jail," he added.

KTR referred to CM Revanth Reddy's statement that MLAs who indulged in defections should be stoned to death like dogs, to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's statement at a public meeting in Tukkuguda that those who defected to other parties should be disqualified automatically, and to Rahul Gandhi putting the issue in the party's political manifesto, and also in Panch Nyay, and asked the Congress to follow its own stand now.