T'gana Cong flays merger of 4 party MLCs into TRS

The Congress in Telangana Friday criticised the merger of four party MLCs into TRS, alleging that it showed "KCR's lust for power".

"KCR's style of functioning of not tolerating the existence of opposition in a democracy shows his dictatorial attitude," AICC member G Niranjan said in a statement.

Compounding the Congress' woes in Telangana, four of its six MLCs defected to the ruling TRS on Friday and were recognised by the Legislative Council chairman as members of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi.

The development came barely 10 days after the opposition party's debacle in the assembly polls.

The four Congress MLCs -- M S Prabhakar Rao, T Santosh Kumar, K Damoder Reddy and Akula Lalitha -- met Legislative Council Chairman K Swamy Goud and petitioned him to "merge" them with the TRS.

Hours later, the Council secretary issued a bulletin informing members of the House about the chairman recognising the "merger".

The Congress suffered a drubbing in the recent state assembly polls.

The party, which formed a "grand alliance" with the TDP, CPI and the Telangana Jan Samithi, managed to win only 19 seats in the 119-member House.

The TRS scored a thumping win and returned to power for a second straight term winning 88 seats.