Disqualify defected Telangana MLAs, demands Congress

Hyderabad, March 23 (IANS) Telangana's main opposition Congress urged the state Governor on Saturday to disqualify nine legislators who defected to the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).

A delegation of Congress leaders led by party's central leader and former Union Minister M. Veerappa Moily called on Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan at the Raj Bhavan and submitted him a memorandum.

They urged the Governor to direct the Assembly Speaker to disqualify those MLAs who have announced that they were leaving the Congress.

The delegation included former Union Minister S. Jaipal Reddy, party Secretary incharge of party affairs in the state R. C. Khuntia, state Congress chief Uttam Kumar Reddy and Congress Legislature Party leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka.

The party also resolved to take the up issue of defections at the national level and complain to the Lokpal.

Earlier, Moily met senior party leaders and discussed the situation created by the defection of nine MLAs this month. This has reduced Congress party's strength in 119-member Telangana Assembly to 10.

Moily told reporters that the TRS was engineering defections in the Congress and warned that Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao would have to pay a price for this.

Terming defections a "blood cancer", he said party President Rahul Gandhi was concerned about it. Exuding confidence that Congress would come to power at the Centre, the former Law Minister said it would bring amendments to Anti-Defection Law to provide more teeth to the courts to deal with the problem.

Khuntia said the MLAs who were elected on the Congress symbol should resign from the Assembly.

Uttam Kumar Reddy alleged that the TRS was indulging horse trading by using the "ill-gotten" money. He claimed that the statements of all defected MLAs were similar and typed in the Chief Minister's office.