T-Cong opposes elections for Council's chairman post

The Telangana Congress on Monday strongly opposed the elections for the post of Chairman of Telangana State Legislative Council.

Speaking to media persons after holding a meeting with Telangana Congress MLCs at Gandhi Bhavan here, Leader of the Opposition in Legislative Council D Srinivas informed that his party would meet Governor ESL Narasimhan seeking his intervention to stop elections for the Chairman's post. He said that the Congress party enjoys majority in the Upper House and therefore, was no need to conduct fresh elections for the Chairman's post. However, he said in case TRS Government decides to conduct elections, then the same would be contested by the Congress party.

Srinivas also informed that five MLCs, who recently joined the TRS, were yet to resign from the Congress party. Therefore, in case of elections, the Congress party would have the advantage of issuing whip to its members and any violation would attract disqualification.

The meeting was also attended by TPCC chief Ponnala Lakshmaiah and Leader of the Opposition in Assembly K Jana Reddy. According to sources, the Congress has decided to field Farooq Hussain as its candidate against the TRS nominee for the Chairman's post.

Meanwhile, Deputy Leader of the Opposition Mohammad Ali Shabbir condemned the action by five MLCs who joined the TRS without formally resigning from the Congress party. He said that the leaders should have resigned from their posts before joining the other parties.