PNS n hyderabad
After the defeat of the BRS in the Telangana Assembly elections, the future of the state’s Legislative Council is hanging in the balance. The reason is that the Legislative Council is in the hands of the BRS even though it was defeated in the Assembly elections.
When the TDP first came to power in United AP in 1983 and the YSR Congress when it came to power in 2019 in Andhra Pradesh, they too faced the same situation in the Legislative Council which the Congress is now facing in Telangana.
Even though the BRS was defeated in the Assembly elections the Telangana Legislative Council is in its hands. In the 40-member Telangana Legislative Council, the BRS has 30 Members and its ally AIMIM has two Members. But the Congress has only three Members.
Congress MLA T. Jeevan Reddy who was elected from Jagtial will resign his MLC membership. With this, the strength of the Congress will come down to two. The Chairman and Vice Chairman also belong to the BRS. The BRS will create hurdles to the Congress government in the Legislative Council.
Legislature business will not run smoothly as the Assembly is in the hands of the Congress and the Legislative Council is in the hands of the BRS.
In these circumstances, whether the Congress will follow the footsteps of the late Chief Minister NT Rama Rao by abolishing the Legislative Council is not clear.
In Andhra Pradesh in the beginning the Legislative Council was in the hands of the opposition TDP. While the Assembly had a YSR Congress majority, the Legislative Council was run by the TDP. Due to this, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy abolished the Legislative Council. This decision is still pending with the Central Government.
Meanwhile, the YSR Congress gained sufficient strength in the Council and at present there are no hurdles for the AP government in the Council.
In Telangana, it will take a lot of time for the Congress to attain a majority in the Council. Till that time the Congress government will have to face problems from the BRS in the Council.
When the late NTR abolished the Council in United Andhra Pradesh during the 1989 Assembly elections the Congress under the leadership of the late Marri Chennareddy declared that it would revive it. But after it came to power in 1989 the Congress government did not revive the Council.
Later, under the leadership of the late YS Rajasekhar Reddy, the Congress again assured to revive the Legislative Council during the 2004 Assembly elections. After coming to power the Congress government under the leadership of Chief Minister YS Rajasekhar Reddy revived the Council in 2007.
