Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader and former minister K Taraka Rama Rao (KTR) said on Tuesday that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is displaying double standards on defections, even as he claims to “protect the Constitution of the country”.
KTR is in Delhi with party leaders Harish Rao and Suresh Reddy to expose the “unethical” practices of the Congress. “The Congress mourns party defections in Goa, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Haryana. However, in Telangana, they do not hesitate to induct BRS leaders. Where are their ethics? On the one hand, they claim that they are protecting the Constitution. On the other hand, they are acting in a way that insults the book,” he said.
“We will make Congress policies known to the people of the country at Delhi level. Although the Congress promised to make anti-defection law stronger in its Nyay Patra, it is encouraging leaders from other parties to join them,” the former IT minister of Telangana added.
THE DEFECTIONS
In the past couple of weeks, serial defections have rattled the BRS. Former Rajya Sabha MP and senior BRS leader K Keshava Rao joined the Congress in the presence of party president Mallikarjun Kharge. Besides this, six BRS MLCs joined the Congress in a midnight coup last week. Additionally, seven BRS MLAs have jumped to the party after it came to power. The BRS has approached Telangana Speaker to disqualify a few of the MLAs.
KTR said that they will approach the higher authorities. “The BRS will fight on a large scale against the unethical behavior of the Congress party. We will complain to the President who is the guardian of the Constitution. We will take up the issue with the Speaker of Lok Sabha and the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha. We will continue to fight against party defections along with other parties who are targeted by the Congress and BJP. We will seek legal measures and knock on the doors of the Supreme Court to stop such illegal activities,” he said.
WHEN CONGRESS HAD APPROACHED SPEAKER AGAINST THEN TRS
While the BRS has been speaking out against party defections for long, their rivals have maintained that the pink party is getting a taste of its own medicine. When the party (then TRS) came to power in 2014, seven Congress MLAs had joined it. At that time, the Congress had approached the Speaker to disqualify the turncoats.
When asked about this, KTR defended the move by saying that there is a difference between defections and mergers. “If the two-thirds of a legislative party merges, even the Supreme Court cannot do anything. However, the present Telangana chief minister is going to the houses of BRS MLAs at midnight and poaching them against the law,” he added.
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