Congress accuses KCR of engineering defections

Hyderabad: Congress candidate for MLC elections under MLAs quota and TPCC Treasurer Gudur Narayana Reddy on Sunday has strongly condemned Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao for encouraging defections in opposition parties to win the fifth MLC seat.Speaking to the media, Narayana Reddy said that the Congress party had required strength to win the fifth MLC seat under MLAs quota.

However, he alleged that the Chief Minister was trying to engineer defection of two Congress and two TDP MLAs into TRS to illegally win the fifth seat. “KCR is openly violating the Anti-Defection Law while displaying utter disrespect to the Constitution. He wants to grab power by murdering the democracy and all its norms,” he said. “Congress party has 19 MLAs while the TDP has two legislators.

Both the parties had a pre-poll alliance had contested the last Assembly elections as Grand Alliance. A day before the declaration of the results on December 11, an all-party delegation had met Governor ESL Narasimhan and submitted a memorandum asking him to treat all the parties in Grand Alliance as a single entity. Therefore, technically and ethically, the Congress strength should be of 21 MLAs. However, by making Congress and TDP MLAs defect to TRS, KCR is slaughtering the legislature and its spirit,” Narayana Reddy said.

The Congress leader said every individual possess some aspirations and work hard to grow in career. “I have been working hard for the people since several decades. The Congress party gave me an opportunity to become an MLC and with required strength on my side, I am fully eligible and also deserve to get elected.

But in order to pursue his mean and cheap political goals, KCR is trying to throttle my political career. While KCR wants to see his son KTR become a Chief Minister, he does not want my mother, who is over 76-year-old now, to see her son become MLC. By doing so, KCR would not get any praises, but only curses,” he said.