Hyderabad: With Congress MLAs defecting and joining TRS, the party may be stripped off of its main opposition status in the state. In this situation, All India Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen will become the main opposition and its leader Akbaruddin Owaisi may be elected as leader of the opposition.
Following the defection of Congress MLAs, the position of Congress party in the assembly is becoming weaker. If two more Congress MLAs announce to quit the party and join TRS, the number of Congress members in the legislative assembly will shrink to 6. In this situation, Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) with 7 members in the Legislative assembly will emerge as the largest opposition party.
According to reliable sources, the ruling party is mulling over giving the post of leader of the opposition to Akbaruddin Owaisi, the leader of its ally party MIM. It is believed that since no party enjoys the status of opposition, the post of leader of opposition may be allotted to the party having the majority of seats in the assembly after the ruling party.
Winning 19 seats in Telangana in assembly elections held in December 2018, Congress had gained the status of opposition. However, 11 of its members have defected and announced to join TRS. The ruling party seems to be planning to enlist the support of two more Congress MLAs (altogether 13) and make them seek the merger of Congress Legislature Party with itself (TRS). AIMIM had won seven seats in the Assembly elections, while TRS had swept the polls winning 88 seats.