Congress Files Case Over Merger Of MLCs With TRS

Senior Congress leader and MLC Mohammad Ali Shabbir on Monday filed a writ petition in the High Court challenging the merger of the Congress Legislature Party in the Telangana Council with the ruling TRS.

Congress MLCs Akula Lalitha, Santosh Kumar, M S Prabhakar Rao and K Damodar Reddy, who defected to the TRS, submitted a representation to the Council Chairman K Swamy Goud seeking the merger of the Congress CLP with the TRSLP as a majority of the Congress MLCs had joined the ruling party.

Allowing their representation, Legislature Secretary Narasimhacharyulu issued orders on December 21 effecting the merger of the Congress group into the TRS.

Aggrieved by the legislature order, former Leader Of Opposition in the Council Shabbir Ali filed a writ petition in the High Court.

As the CJ Radhakrishnan is on leave, the petition is likely to come up for hearing on December 26.

In his petition, Shabbir Ali contended that the Council Chairman Swamy Goud was acting in an arbitrary manner and overlooking the basic principles of the Constitution.

He also called on Goud and urged him to take action against his party's two rebel MLCs for defecting to the TRS without tendering resignations from their MLC posts.

"As per the rules, only the Election Commission is competent to merge a political party with any other," Shabbir Ali told mediapersons.