In a major setback to the Congress party in Telangana, four of its six Members of Legislative council (MLCs) in Telangana yesterday defected to the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS). <br />''<br />''The four Congress MLCs – MS Prabhakar Rao, T Santosh Kumar, K Damodar Reddy and Akula Lalitha met Legislative Council Chairman K Swamy Goud and petitioned him to merge them with the TRS.<br />'' <br />''Hours later, the Council secretary issued a bulletin informing members of the House about the chairman recognising the merger. The development came barely 10 days after the Congress party's debacle in the assembly polls. <br />'' <br />''<span style="color: #222222;">The Congress had six members in the 40-member council. Now it is left with only two – Mohammed Ali Shabbir and P Sudhakar Reddy. The development means that Shabbir, the Leader of the Opposition in the Council, will lose his status for which a party has to have 1/10th of the total strength of the House.</span><br />