HYDERABAD: A delegation of Congress leaders, led by former Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily, called on Governor ESL Narasimhan on Saturday and asked him to recommend to the President and Central government that the President’s rule be imposed in the state by invoking Article 356 of the Constitution.
This, they said, was required as constitutional norms were violated by Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, and Legislative Assembly Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy. Their request comes after nine Congress MLAs defected to the ruling TRS.
The Congress delegation, in its representation to the governor, said Rao was encouraging defections to his party, by calling Congress MLAs to his camp office and taking them into TRS fold, at a time when the Model Code of Conduct was in force ahead of the general elections.
They termed the defections as unconstitutional, immoral and illegal. The delegation also noted that as the defections were being encouraged by the chief minister himself, no action on their disqualification would be taken by the Assembly Speaker, who is a member of the ruling TRS party. They accused the CM and the Speaker of violating Schedule-III of the constitution, of abiding by Constitutional mandates.
Cong requests Guv to ‘not favour’ TRS
The Congress leaders further noted that the nine Congress MLAs’ defection mounts to voluntarily giving up their membership of the Congress, and as per Schedule-X of the Constitution, they must be disqualified. The Congress delegation demanded that the governor should not resort to any “dilatory tactics” to favour the ruling TRS, and must work to protect the Constitutional provisions, by referring their application asking for President’s rule in the state. Moily claimed he has evidence that the written announcement by MLAs regarding their defection was drafted at the CM’s camp office.