Telangana CLP meet today over party defections

Hyderabad: The Telangana Congress Legislature Party will hold an emergency meeting on Friday at Gandhi Bhavan to discuss the defection of party MLAs, how to get them to return and how to prevent more legislators from leaving the party fold. Nine of the 19 legislators elected on Congress tickets have defected to the TRS. The TRS is trying to woo three more MLAs so that it can merge all of them into the party and avoid disqualification under the anti-defection law. The Congress needs 13 MLAs to retain the Opposition party status.

Elsewhere, TS Congress leaders alleged that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had enacted a drama by talking to a farmer to divert public attention from the Congress’s victory in the MLC elections. AICC official spokesperson Dasoju Sravan, Opposition leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, TPCC working president Jetti Kusuma Kumar and others in separate media conferences on Thursday said that the MLC election results would repeat in the polls.Dr Sravan said the Karimnagar farmer has given false information to Mr Rao. He cited Ms Jyothi, a family member of the farmer, and demanded for justice.