Speaker not competent to allow merger of CLP with TRS: Uttam

Hyderabad: As a caveat, TPCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy has written a letter to the Assembly Speaker, urging him to inform the Congress about any request for merger of group of defected Congress MLAs with the TRS Legislature Party.

In the letter, the TPCC present said, "Please treat the letter as caveat and a notice be given to the party if the Speaker receives any representation from a fake CLP regarding the merger."

Uttam Kumar Reddy made it clear that the Speaker of the Assembly was not competent enough to merge the legislature wing of a party with other party.

He said disqualification petitions against several Congress MLAs who have publicly announced that they are joining the TRS party are pending with the Speaker.

He said that to protect democratic values in the State, the Congress requested the Speaker to immediately disqualify defected Congress MLAs. He said while the disqualification petitions were pending, two more Congress MLAs defected from the Congress to TRS.

Uttam Kumar Reddy said under the Constitution of India as held in several Supreme Court judgments, the Speaker is not competent to merge one political party with another.

No CLP meeting is permissible without the permission of president of Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee.