In a huge setback, Cong loses 12 MLAs to TRS

M Somasekhar

In a big jolt, the Congress in Telangana suffered a vertical split, losing its main Opposition status in the Legislative Assembly and has been reduced to single digit for the first time.

In dramatic developments, 12 of its total 19 MLAs submitted a signed letter to the Speaker, Pocharam Srinivas, urging him to merge the block into the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS). With this, the Congress’ strength fell to six in the 119-member Legislative.

The Telangana Assembly Secretary issued a formal bulletin recognising the merger of the 12 Congress legislators into the TRS. Consequently, the Cong number has plummeted below the AIMIM’s strength — seven.

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee President Uttam Kumar Reddy had submitted his resignation to the Huzurnagar Assembly seat on Wednesday, after he won the Lok Sabha election to the Nalgonda constituency.

At the same time, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), which won three seats, has also lost two of its MLAs, who have defected to the TRS. With this, the strength of the ruling party, led by K Chandrasekhar Rao, which had won a landslide victory in the December 2018 election bagging 88 seats, increases to 103. The AIMIM won seven, Congress six, the BJP and the TDP one each.

Reacting to the major setback, Uttam Kumar Reddy found fault with the Speaker for first finding time to ‘secretly’ meet the defecting MLAs and then accepting the merger even while a petition was pending in the State High Court. “He did not take my call nor did he follow the procedures”, he argued.

Earlier, the attempt by leaders of the Congress to protest was foiled by the police. Uttam Kumar Reddy said “We will fight judicially” and questioned the Speaker’s decision.

The background story

The troubles of the Congress began immediately after the poll drubbing at the hands of the TRS, despite fighting under the Praja Front alliance with the TDP, the TJS & the CPI. While a few of its victorious MLAs started defecting, many others were being weaned away. Uttam Kumar alleged that Chief Minister KCR was himself openly luring his partymen

Even before the Lok Sabha elections on April 11, the party had at least 10 of its MLAs in the rival camp. While the leadership was nursing hopes of a reversal after winning four 4 Lok Sabha seats, the fast moves by the defectors and their acceptance into the TRS fold has come as a shock.

In August 2013, reports were rife that in Telangana, the TRS was heading to a vertical split with nine of its 17 MLAs reportedly in talks with the Congress leadership, including Digvijay Singh, to defect. It gained credence as the Congress Working Committee had announced its decision to grant a separate Statehood for Telangana.

The Congress was argued that it was engineering the defections as KCR, who was leading the agitation for Telangana from 2001 with his TRS, had promised to merge the party once the it announced Statehood.

When the elections were held in 2014, the TRS and KCR came to power, while the Congress faced a rout.

In 2019, KCR has gone one up by successfully splitting the Cong(I) and reducing it to a pathetic state in Telangana.

As things stand with 103 seats and the alliance partner MIM as opposition and the BJP, TDP with one each and a by election, KCR and the TRS emerge with a virtual non-existent opposition, in India’s newest State.

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