Merger Of 12 Congress Mlas With TRS : Bhatti to go on 36-hour fast

Hyderabad: Congress Legislature Party leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka has decided to go on 36-hour hunger strike from 11 am on Saturday to protest the merger of Congress Legislature Party with TRS Legislature Party.

This was announced by AICC general secretary and Telangana Congress in-charge R C Khuntia and Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president N Uttam Kumar Reddy at a press conference here on Friday.

They said the Congress would fight against the illegal and unethical decision of Assembly Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy to merge the CLP with TRS.

Speaking to the media, Khuntia along with Uttam Kumar Reddy, leader of CLP Vikramarka, former MLC Shabbir Ali and TPCC working president Kusuma Kumar, said the Speaker had become a political slave.

He said a complicated situation was prevailing in the State with the TRS luring other party MLAs even though it enjoyed majority in the Assembly. He said this showed the arrogance of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao.

He said the Chief Minister has been trying to eliminate the opposition. The Speaker did not take the complaint of the Congress into consideration against the defected MLAs, he said.

Even the Governor had not taken interest in addressing the issues raised by the Congress. It was not correct to say that all the 12 defected MLAs held a meeting at a time and decided for merger. They were purchased one by one since March.

The Speaker endorsed merger of Congress MLAs with the TRS even though Leader of the Opposition had filed petitions against the defected MLAs.

Khuntia said the All India Congress Committee strongly condemned the unethical and illegal merger of the CLP with TRS.

He said that for the first time a Dalit has reached to the post of leader of the Opposition status in the State.

But the government had denied the post to him. He said that the Congress would organise agitations against the merger of the CLP with TRS. He said that a Dalit was humiliated by the government.

Uttam Kumar Reddy wondered as to how the Speaker had accepted contention of the defected MLAs against whom petitions of disqualification were pending.

Uttam Kumar Reddy criticised P Srinivas Reddy for bringing bad name to the Speaker's office.