Congress, TRS To Contest For Council Chairman Post

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi and the Congress are headed for a tough contest to win the post of the Chairman of the Telangana State Legislative Council.

Deviating from the tradition of unanimous election for the post, both the TRS and the Congress have fielded their candidates for the post.

While TRS MLC Swamy Goud submitted his papers at 10:30am and even claimed that he was getting elected unopposed, about an hour later Congress MLC Farooq Hussain filed his nomination for the post.

Swamy Goud was accompanied by TRS Secretary General K Keshava Rao, Deputy CM Mahmood Ali, and ministers Nayani Narasimha Reddy, K Tarakarama Rao, T Harish Rao and Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, among others. He thanked Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and other leaders for making him a candidate for such an important post.

After his filing the nomination, the TRS leaders almost celebrated Swamy Goud's victory, confident that he was getting elected unopposed.

However, at about 11:30am, Farooq Hussain filed his nomination for the post.

Speaking to media persons later, Leader of the Opposition in the Telangana Legislative Council D Srinivas claimed that the Congress had a majority in the Council, and would comfortably win the seat.

Farooq Hussain said that the 5 Congress MLCs who defected to the TRS would also vote in his favour as the Congress would issue the whip.

When asked whether the Congress would seek the support of the MIM which has two members in the Upper House, Srinivas said that the MIM was yet to clarify its stand on the elections.

Following defection by the 5 MLCs, the Congress' strength in the Legislative Council has reduced to 12. With 7 MLCs of other parties joining the TRS, which already had 5 MLCs, the ruling party now enjoys the same strength in the Council as the COngress. Following 2 defections, the TDP's strength has reduced from 7 to 5 MLCs. There are 3 members of the PRTC, and 1 independent MLC.

In the given circumstances, the TRS is all set to win the post of the Council Chairman. However, the elections might help the Congress in gaining legal grounds for seeking the disqualification of the 5 rebel MLCs. (INN)