HYDERABAD: Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is close to his target of effecting the merger of Congress Legislature Party in TRS, with one more MLA of the grand old party, joining the ranks of the pink party. In a late night development, Yellareddy MLA Jajala Surender said: “I have decided to join the TRS after the people in my constituency desired that I should join hands with KCR and take part in the effort for the development of the state.”
With Surender joining the TRS, the number of the Congress MLAs who had defected to the pink party rose to 10. The TRS, which has 101 MLAs now, needs just another three MLAs for CLP’s merger as it needs two-thirds of the 19 Congress MLAs in the House.
Surender alleged that the people were no longer with the Congress and that its leadership, of late, had become dictatorial. “If necessary, I will resign to my membership of the assembly since I am joining another party,” Surender said, adding that it was his responsibility to act in accordance with the wishes of the people.