Congress stakes claim to form government in Telangana

Hyderabad, Dec 3: The Congress on Sunday staked claim for forming the government in Telangana after it secured a majority in the Assembly elections while the newly elected MLAs will meet on Monday to elect their leader.

A delegation of Congress leaders led by party General Secretary in-charge of Telangana Manikrao Thakare and Telangana state President A. Revanth Reddy called on Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan at Raj Bhavan on Sunday night to stake claim for government formation.

They were accompanied by Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, other AICC observers, and former state President Uttam Kumar Reddy.

They submitted a list of newly-elected Congress MLAs to the Governor.

Shivakumar told media persons outside Raj Bhavan that they staked claim for forming the government with 65 MLAs.

He said a meeting of newly-elected MLAs will be held at 9.30 a.m. Monday.

"We have a procedure in the Congress party. We will come out with the procedure and we will come back to you," he said while declining to answer queries.

The meeting is likely to pass a resolution requesting the party’s Central leadership to name the leader. The newly-elected MLAs of the party from across the state have started reaching Ella Hotel in Gachibowli. All are likely to reach late on Sunday night.

Revanth Reddy, who led the party’s campaign, is likely to be named the CLP leader by the party’s central leadership. It was immediately not clear if the new Chief Minister will take oath on Monday or later.