Hyderabad: The disqualification of MLA Danam Nagender by the Telangana high court on Friday (September 18) has set off suspense over the fate of eight other Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLAs who, like Nagender, defected to the Congress after the last assembly elections in the state.

Nagender won on a BRS ticket from the Khairatabad assembly constituency in Hyderabad in the November 2023 polls but went on to contest as Congress candidate from the Secunderabad Lok Sabha seat in May 2024 while continuing to be a BRS MLA on paper.

He was among ten BRS MLAs who defected to the Congress after the party formed a government in Telangana in 2023. With one of these lawmakers having returned to the BRS fold recently, the high court’s judgment disqualifying Nagender has now put the remaining eight legislators’ tenure in jeopardy.

Allowing two writ petitions filed by BRS and BJP MLAs, a division bench of the high court on Friday declared Nagender disqualified as of April 23, 2024 (the day he filed his affidavit as a Congress candidate) as a member of the Telangana assembly in accordance with the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution – the anti-defection law – and Article 191(2), which disqualifies MLAs and MLCs if they are found guilty of violating the Tenth Schedule.

“As a result thereof, the said seat [Khairatabad] is rendered vacant,” the division bench comprising Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice G.M. Mohiuddin ordered.

The judgment has left hanging in the balance the fate of the eight BRS MLAs against whom the party has also petitioned the division bench for switching loyalties to the Congress, citing different grounds showing them to be active members of the grand old party.

For example, the BRS has accused Station Ghanpur MLA Kadiyam Srihari of campaigning for his daughter, Congress candidate Kadiam Kavya, in the Lok Sabha elections from Warangal. They have also said that Banswada MLA Pocharam Srinivas Reddy holds the post of adviser on agriculture to the incumbent Congress government.

The bench heard the petitions, by BRS MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy and BJP MLA A. Maheshwar Reddy, against Nagender and reserved its order on August 21. It delivered its verdict on Friday.

The petitions against others – Srihari, Pocharam........

© The Wire