In setback for Congress in Telangana, 4 MLCs move to join TRS

Hyderabad: In a setback to the Congress in Telangana, four MLCs on Friday urged Chairman of Legislative Council K Swamy Goud to merge their party in the upper house with the ruling TRS.

The Congress MLCs -- M S Prabhakar Rao, T Santosh Kumar, K Damodar Reddy and Akula Lalitha -- met the chairman and submitted a petition.

The four MLCs said in the letter that a meeting of Congress Legislature Party in the council was held on December 20 and its merger with that of TRS in the council was discussed.

"In the said meeting, we the undersigned have decided and agreed to merge into Telangana Rashtra Samithi Legislature Party in Telangana Legislative Council," the letter read.

They said they have the required strength for merger into Telangana Rashtra Samithi Legislature Party under para 4 of Tenth Schedule of the Constitution. "There are six members of Congress party in all in the Telangana Legislative Council," they said.

"We, therefore, request you to accept our merger into Telangana Rashtra Samithi Legislature Party in Telangana Legislative Council with immediate effect and our names may be shown in the list of Telangana Rashtra Samithi Legislature Party in Telangana Legislative Council," they said in the letter.