Congress seeks disqualification of MLCs who defected to TRS

Opposition Congress today sought disqualification of party MLCs who crossed over to the ruling TRS in Telangana, while accusing Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao of "engineering" defections from other parties. The demand was put forward by the Telangana Congress Legislature Party. Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir and his deputy P Sudhakar Reddy petitioned the Council Chairman Swamy Goud for the disqualification of MLCs M S Prabhakar and Farooq Hussain, who recently switched over to the ruling party. They also stressed on action against another MLC Rajeshwar, who had defected to the ruling party earlier, Shabbir said in a release. "Instead of setting new standards of morals and ethics in the new state of Telangana, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has set a wrong precedent. He engineered 47 defections - 4 MPs, 25 MLAs and 18 MLCs - during his 24-month rule," Shabbir added.