Opposition Congress leaders in Telangana have approached the High Court, seeking direction to the State Assembly Speaker not to merge Congress Legislature Party (CLP) with the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).

Amid reports that 11 MLAs who defected to TRS mulling to request Speaker P. Srinivas Reddy to merge CLP with TRS, State Congress chief Uttam Kumar Reddy and CLP leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka on Monday filed a petition in the High Court.

They sought direction to the Speaker not to issue any orders for CLP’s merger with the TRS till their petitions for disqualification of defectors were disposed of. They also urged the court to direct the Speaker to issue a notice to them before merging CLP with the ruling party.

Eleven Congress MLAs have quit the party and joined TRS during last two months. Congress has already submitted petitions to the Speaker to disqualify them.

In the Assembly elections held in December, Congress had won 19 seats in 119-member Assembly.

As the two-third MLAs of Congress have crossed over to TRS, there has been speculation for the last few days that they may request the Speaker to merge CLP with the legislature party of TRS. In the event of the merger, Congress will lose the status of main opposition party in the Assembly.

Uttam Kumar Reddy had written to Speaker on Sunday urging him to inform the Congress about any request for merger of defected Congress MLAs with the TRS. He also claimed that the Speaker was not competent enough to merge the legislature wing of a party with other party.