Telangana Speaker dismisses petitions for disqualification of five BRS MLAs

Hyderabad, Dec 17 Telangana Assembly Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar on Wednesday dismissed the petitions to disqualify five BRS MLAs who allegedly shifted loyalties to the ruling Congress.

Pronouncing the orders on the petitions for disqualification of the MLAs, the Speaker said the petitioners failed to provide evidence that they defected to the Congress.

The Speaker ruled that the anti-defection law does not apply to the MLAs Tellam Venkat Rao, Bandla Krishna Mohan Reddy, T. Prakash Goud, Gudem Mahipal Reddy, and Arekapudi Gandhi.

He made it clear that the MLAs are technically still in Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).

The Speaker pronounced the orders on the petitions for the disqualification of five out of 10 BRS MLAs for allegedly switching loyalties to the ruling party.

He had completed the hearing on the petitions for the disqualification of eight MLAs and reserved the orders.

The Speaker is likely to pronounce on Thursday orders on the disqualification of three other MLAs - Kale Yadaiah, Sanjay Kumar, and Pocharam Srinivas Reddy

The decision on the disqualification of two other MLAs, Danam Nagender and Kadiyam Srihari, is likely after they submit their replies to the notices served on them.

They sought more time to respond to the notice sent by the Speaker last month.

The BRS had filed petitions for the disqualification of 10 MLAs who were elected to the Assembly on its ticket in the 2023 elections but switched loyalties to Congress in 2024.

While the BRS complained that these MLAs openly joined the Congress and even sat in the treasury benches in the Assembly, the MLAs denied that they joined the ruling party. They contended that they only met Chief Minister Revanth Reddy to seek funds for the development of their constituencies.

The BRS brought to the notice of the Speaker that Nagender not only joined the Congress but also contested the 2024 Lok Sabha election from Secunderabad on a Congress ticket.

It also alleged that Kadiyam Srihari openly campaigned for his daughter Kadiyam Kaviya, who contested the Lok Sabha polls from Warangal constituency as the Congress candidate.

The Supreme Court, on November 17, issued a contempt notice to the Telangana Speaker for not complying with its directive to decide on disqualification pleas against the 10 MLAs.

On July 31, a bench headed by the then Chief Justice B.R. Gavai had directed the Assembly Speaker to decide in three months the matter of the disqualification of the 10 MLAs.

The bench termed the non-compliance of its earlier directions as the grossest kind of contempt while issuing notices to the Speaker and others on the pleas filed by the BRS leaders.

Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor