Congress to knock on HC door

​Hyderabad: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee has decided to wage a legal battle against the “merger of Congress Legislative Party (CLP) in the Legislative Council with the TRS.”  The Congress party will file a petition in the Hyderabad High Court on Monday. 

The party leaders said the decision of Legislative Council Chairman Swamy Goud to accept the proposal by four MLC for the merger of CLP with the TRS. The party is prepared to cite various judgements to drive its point home. The Congress leaders argued that the decision of the Chairman was not correct, and it was against the principles of democracy. TPCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy termed it as “murder of democracy.” 

Though the Congress leaders met the Council Chairman on Friday and presented their arguments, but no purpose was served, the leaders said. Following this, the Congress party decided to knock on the doors of the High Court. According to party leaders, the Council Chairman and Assembly Speaker shall not take decision on the merger. They said that when Praja Rajyam party was merged with the Congress in 2009, the final decision was taken by the Election Commission of India.

In similar cases, the courts ruled against the decisions of the Speakers on mergers. The Congress would put forward the same arguments in the court in support of its case. The party is arguing that MLCs or MLAs belonging to a national party cannot be merged with a regional party.  

The Congress, which was battered in the Assembly elections, is  now determined to protect its legislators from poaching by the ruling party. The party suspects that the merger of its CLP in Council with TRS could be a precursor to a similar move in the Assembly. 

A senior party leader felt that the TRS was bent upon ensuring that there is no opposition in either Assembly or Council and it is trying to resort to merger of the Opposition party with the ruling party. The Congress is forced to fight against the decision that allowed merger of CLP in the Council with the TRS to prevent the repeat of episode in Assembly.