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Hyderabad, Dec.24 (PMI): Senior Congress leader and MLC
Mohammad Ali Shabbir on Monday filed a writ petition in the High Court
challenging the merger of Congress legislature Party in the Council with the
ruling party. Congress MLCs Akula Lalitha, Santosh Kumar, MS Prabhakar Rao and
K Damodar Reddy, who defected to the TRS, submitted a representation to the
Council chairman K Swamy Goud seeking merger of Congress CLP into TRSLP as the
majority of Congress members joined the ruling party.
Allowing
their representation, Legislature Secretary Narasimhacharyulu issued orders on
December 21 effecting merger of Congress group into TRS accordingly. Aggrieved
by the Legislature order, former Leader of the Opposition Congress in the
Council Shabbir Ali filed the writ petition in the Court of the Chief Justice.
As the CJ Radhakrishnan was on leave, the petition is likely to come up for
hearing on December 26.
In
his petition, Shabbir Ali contended that the Council chairman was acting in an
arbitrary manner and overlooking the basic principles of the Constitution. He
also called on Council chairman Swamy Goud and urged him to take action against
his party’s two rebel MLCs for defecting to the ruling TRS without tendering
resignations from their MLC posts.
Shabbir Ali told mediapersons that “As per rules, only the Election Commission
was competent to merge any political party with any one. The fourth para of
schedule X does not talk about it. The draft related to the merger of the
CLP was prepared in the CM’s office after Congress rebels met the CM and
handed over the letter of merger to the Council Chairman. (PMI)
