Supreme Court To Hear Defections Case On Oct 19

The Telangana Congress Legislature Party (CLP) intensified its efforts to make an effective representation in the Supreme Court against the MLAs who had defected to the TRS. The Supreme Court will hear the case on October 19.

CLP leader K Jana Reddy, Leader Of Opposition in the Telangana State Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir and other senior leaders met Congress MP and former Solicitor General Vivek Tankha, who is representing the Telangana Congress in the case in the Supreme Court.

"We are confident of getting a favourable judgment against the legislators who defected to the ruling party in violation of law. Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao managed to engineer 47 defections in 28 months and Speaker S Madhusudhana Chary supported his actions by remaining silent on the disqualification petitions submitted by Opposition parties," said Shabbir Ali.

Shabbir Ali expressed hoped that the Supreme Court would take action against all the 25 MLAs, 18 MLCs and 4 MPs who defected to the TRS.

"We were told by legal experts that there is no provision in law that permits the merger of “Legislature Parties”. Therefore, the Speaker has no right to merge parties. The powers to merge political parties are vested only with the Election Commission of India. By defecting to other parties, the Legislators or Parliamentarians cannot seek the merger of the entire party with the other," he said.

For those who came in late, the Supreme Court served notices to all legislators who defected from the Congress and the TDP, including: 12 MLAs from TDP, 7 from Congress, 3 from YSR Congress Party, 2 from BSP and 1 from CPI.