Hyderabad: Congress plans to appeal in court about “defection” of party MLAs to the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) as well as Hyderabad airport's domestic terminal being named after the late N T Rama Rao, AICC General Secretary Digvijay Singh said here today.
Singh, who is in-charge of Congress's affairs in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, condemned the NDA government for naming the domestic terminal of the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport here after Telugu Desam Party (TDP) founder and former Chief Minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh, the late N T Rama Rao.
“Sonia Gandhi attended events relating to laying of the foundation stone as well as inauguration of the domestic and international airport. Ever since, the name of the airport was Rajiv Gandhi airport. So we condemn the NDA government's decision to change the name. It will be challenged through a public interest litigation (PIL) in the High Court,” he said.
The Union Civil Aviation Ministry had recently named the domestic terminal at the airport after the late N T Rama Rao, which triggered off protests by the Congress. However, Union Civil Aviation Minister P Ashok Gajapathi Raju reportedly said that the name of N T Rama Rao is merely being “resumed”, since the domestic terminal at the airport at Begumpet (which is no longer used for commercial travel) had NTR's name.
Singh, who was here to attend meetings of the Congress in Telangana, alleged that the ruling TRS is encouraging “defection” of Congress MLAs and MLCs. “TRS organises defections of Congress MLAs and MLCs and the presiding officer does not take any decision on it. That will also be challenged in court,” Singh said. Singh's comments about “defections” came in the wake of some Congress MLAs and MLCs announcing support to the TRS in recent times.
