In yet another jolt to the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in Telangana, the state assembly speaker S Madhusudhana Chary on Thursday recognized the 12 TDP MLAs as members of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) in the House.
The 12 TDP MLAs, who won the assembly elections with the TDP ticket in the 2014 polls, had recently switched their loyalty to TRS.
Chary, after consulting with the state’s advocate general K Ramakrishna Reddy on Wednesday, merged the 12 defected MLAs into TRS based on a letter from the TDP’s former floor leader in the assembly Errabelli Dayakar Rao. 12 MLAs including Rao himself make 2/3 majority of the total 15 TDP members in the House. The Telangana legislature office declared the 12 defected MLAs as members of TRS in the assembly.
A Revanth Reddy, R Krishnaiah and S Venkata Veeraiah are the only three TDP members in the Telangana assembly. Reddy and Veeraiah were both involved in the infamous ‘cash for votes’ case. And Krishnaiah was projected as a chief ministerial candidate by TDP in the last assembly polls had TDP been voted to power in Telangana.
It is highly unlikely that these MLAs will join TRS. Reddy and Veeraiah are unwelcome at TRS because of the accusations and allegations, and Krishnaiah has taken a principled stand not to abandon TDP.
The 12 TDP members, who joined TRS recently, urged Chary to allot them seats in the assembly alongside TRS members.
However, TDP stated that Chary’s decision would be challenged in the court of law. Telangana TDP president L Ramana said that the defected MLAs were not immune to anti-defection laws as the merger was done without the party’s consent.
