Turncoat Congress MLAs see merger of CLP with TRSLP soon

Hyderabad: Three of the Congress MLAs (Ch Lingaiah, R Kanta Rao, Haripriya Naik) who have pledged support to the TRS have claimed that the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) would soon be merged with TRSLP with majority at their side.

Talking to reporters here at the Assembly premises, the three MLAs said that merger of CLP with TRSLP was imminent and they were only waiting for the legal opinion.

"Merger is imminent... it will take place soon with majority of MLAs on our side. We are talking to legal experts and soon the merger will take place," said Ch Lingaiah.

Already ten of the 19 MLAs have come out open in support of the ruling TRS. They have not resigned from the Congress party but have issued a letter stating that they would work under the leadership of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao.

They said that if needed they would resign as MLAs and re-contest on TRS ticket. On Saturday, few more MLAs have stated that they are willing to work under CM KCR.

However, one of those, Gandra Venkataramana Reddy met CLP leader Bhatti Vikramarka on Sunday and had discussions with other leaders on the present political situation.

The MLAs who had pledged support to TRS said that they would be with the ruling party. Ch Lingaiah said that people of the state have endorsed the rule of KCR for his welfare measures and development activities.

He said that they have decided to work under the leadership of CM KCR. He claimed that remaining MLAs would also join them soon and the Congress party would be left with two-three MLAs.

The local body elections would be a one-sided affair as TRS would be winning majority of the seats, he said.

The MLAs said that they had come to the Assembly to collect the B-Forms for the local body elections. The State Election Commission has announced schedule for the ZPTC and MPTC elections. Elections would be held in three phases between May 6 and May 14.