12 defected MLAs must resign: Cong

Hyderabad: Congress has demanded that the 12 party MLAs who had defected to TRS must resign from their MLA posts or chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao should ask them to resign.
Former MP and Telangana Congress working president Ponnam Prabhakar on Saturday said former minister Eatala Rajender had resigned to his MLA post before formally joining BJP.“This is the proper and ethical way of leaving a political party to join another political entity. Eatala is most likely to seek re-election from Huzurabad on a BJP ticket. Likewise. even the defected Congress MLAs should resign and seek re-election on TRS ticket because they had won from their respective constituencies on Congress ticket,” Prabhakar said.
In June 2019, 12 Congress MLAs, who constituted two-third of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP), had joined the ruling TRS Legislature Party (TRSLP) in the assembly. As a result, Congress strength fell from 19 to six, and it lost the Opposition party status in the assembly. The assembly secretariat later issued a bulletin confirming the merger of the CLP with TRS.
Though 19 Congress candidates were elected MLAs, TPCC president Uttam Kumar Reddy had resigned from his Huzurnagar assembly seat following his election from Nalgonda Lok Sabha seat, and later the party could not retain the seat in bypoll.