TDP Slams Speaker For Merging TDP MLAs Into TRS

Telangana Telugu Desam Legislature Party leader A Revanth Reddy today took serious exception to the decision taken by the Assembly Speaker to merge the 12 TDP defecting MLAs into the ruling Party.

He dubbed the Speaker's decision as totally "unconstitutional" as a case against the defections was pending in the Supreme Court.

The Speaker had brushed aside Constitutional and legislature conventions in merging the TDP MLAs with the TRS, he said, adding, "We had earlier asked the Speaker several times to disqualify the MLAs who had joined the TRS individually and one after the other over a prolonged period of time. He did not do that, but has now shown alacrity in getting the merger through despite the defections being examined by the Supreme Court."

He specifically questioned the Speaker's intention in merging the turncoat MLAs into the ruling Party reacting immediately to the letter written by Errabelli Dayakar. How could the Speaker take this decision while the complaints for disqualification of the MLAs were pending with him for 20 long months, he asked.

"There is a political conspiracy in this entire episode. It is very painful as all this is happening in the Assembly," Reddy said.

TDP leaders Ravula Chandrasekhar Reddy and Kothakota Dayakar Reddy, too, expressed shock at the merger of the 12 TDP legislators into the TRS fold. At a press conference they condemned the merger as undemocratic and pointed out that the same Speaker Madhusudhana Chary had failed to disqualify the MLAs earlier despite repeated appeals over several months.

"Though we had been asking the Speaker for 18 months, he took no action to disqualify them, but gave the merger bulletin in just 18 hours," they fumed.

The defections being encouraged by the ruling Party were unconstitutional and undemocratic, they said. They sought to know why the Speaker resolved such a long-pending issue in such haste, and asked the intellectuals to react on the issue.