Congress stakes claim to form government in Telangana

Hyderabad: A delegation of Congress leaders on Sunday met Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan and staked claim to form the government in the state.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting with the Governor, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said a meeting of the newly-elected Congress MLAs would be held Tuesday morning.

"Today, under the leadership of our in-charge General Secretary (of Congress) Manikrao Thakre, the PCC president, former PCC president and all our AICC observers, we met the Governor, we claimed to form the government," Shivakumar, who was one of the AICC observers appointed by AICC president to coordinate the meetings of Congress Legislature Party (CLP), told reporters.

"Tomorrow, we are meeting. We have a procedure in the Congress party. We will come out with the procedure and we will come back to you," he said.

He said he cannot disclose what the Governor stated.

Shivakumar said the Congress has staked claim to form the government with the support of 65 members in the newly-elected House.

Congress has won 64 out of the total 119 seats in the elections to the Legislative Assembly, while its pre-poll ally CPI bagged one segment.