New-found company: Praja Rajyam president Chiranjeevi and Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas S. Jaipal Reddy addressing the media in New Delhi on Monday.
This formality will begin after the PR delegation submits, to the CEO, its application along with all the resolutions passed by the district units and the State Executive and conveying their acceptance of merger with the Congress. The application will, in turn, be forwarded to the Election of India of India for further action. The PR leadership plans to request the EC to freeze the Praja Rajyam symbol of ‘Rising sun' to prevent misuse.
Senior PR leader Kotagiri Vidyadhar Rao said Mr. Chiranjeevi had planned to convene a series of meetings with party MLAs and the State executive members to discuss the modalities of the merger.
Meetings planned
PR leaders hope that all the formalities would be completed latest by February 14, the day on which a public meeting will be held in the city, most likely at the Shilpa Kala Vedika.
Legal experts say that despite the merger announcement, it may not be possible for the PR MLAs to sit in the Treasury benches till the EC gives the formal approval. They also noted that after the PR petitions the EC informing it about the merger, the latter could call for objections. According to sources in the Legislature Secretariat, once the PR gets a formal communication from the Election Commission the same would be submitted to the Assembly Speaker. On the direction of the Presiding officer, necessary seating arrangements would be made for the merged party MLAs to sit in the Treasury benches.
Officials said it was for the first time that a regional political outfit had merged with a national party in State's history. The only exception was in 1971 when MPs elected on the Telangana Praja Samiti (TPS) ticket joined the Congress en masse. The TPS had not contested the Assembly elections hence no such merger had taken place.
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