Telangana Assembly Speaker Dismisses Defection Petitions Against BRS MLAs
In a significant political development, Telangana Assembly Speaker G Prasad Kumar on Wednesday dismissed petitions seeking the disqualification of two Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLAs—Danam Nagender from Khairatabad and Kadiyam Srihari from Station Ghanpur. The speaker ruled that there was insufficient evidence to prove they had defected to the Congress party.
Speaker Closes All Defection Cases Against 10 BRS MLAs
With this decision, the speaker has effectively closed all disqualification cases filed against 10 BRS MLAs who were accused of switching loyalties after the Congress came to power in Telangana in December 2023. This move is expected to intensify the political battle between the BRS and Congress, with the BRS now planning to challenge the speaker's orders in the high court.
The ruling comes just one day before the Supreme Court was scheduled to hear the disqualification petitions. Earlier, the apex court had set a strict three-week deadline for the speaker to dispose of all pending petitions related to the alleged defections.
No Evidence of Formal Defection, Says Speaker
Pronouncing his detailed order, Speaker G Prasad Kumar stated there was no material to establish that the two MLAs had defected to another political party. He observed that the evidence placed before him did not conclusively prove that the legislators had formally joined the Congress. The speaker held that they continued to remain members of the BRS, acting as the tribunal under the anti-defection law.
Nagender and Srihari had faced intense political scrutiny over their actions during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Nagender contested the Secunderabad Lok Sabha seat as a Congress candidate in the April 2024 polls, while Kadiyam openly campaigned for his daughter, Kadiyam Kavya, who contested from the Warangal Lok Sabha constituency as a Congress candidate. However, both MLAs consistently denied that they had defected to the Congress.
Phased Disposal of Petitions Over Three Months
Over the past three months, the speaker had disposed of petitions against eight other BRS MLAs in a phased manner. These include:
- Tellam Venkat Rao (Bhadrachalam)
- Bandla Krishna Mohan Reddy (Gadwal)
- T Prakash Goud (Rajendranagar)
- Gudem Mahipal Reddy (Patancheru)
- Arekapudi Gandhi (Serilingampally)
- M Sanjay Kumar (Jagtial)
- Kale Yadaiah (Chevella)
- Pocharam Srinivas Reddy (Banswada)
All were accused by the BRS of shifting allegiance to the ruling Congress party.
Political Controversy and Government Appointments
The controversy gained further political traction as some of these MLAs were later accommodated in government positions. Pocharam was appointed adviser to the government on agriculture issues, while Arekapudi was made chairman of the assembly public accounts committee, fueling allegations of political maneuvering.
Petitioners' Evidence and MLAs' Defense
The disqualification petitions were filed last year by several BRS MLAs, including KP Vivekananda, Palla Rajeshwar Reddy, Kalvakuntla Sanjay, Chinta Prabhakar, P Kaushik Reddy, and G Jagadish Reddy. They submitted newspaper clippings, photographs, and videos purportedly showing the legislators joining the Congress in the presence of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy.
Alleging delay on the part of the speaker in taking up the matter, the petitioners approached both the high court and the Supreme Court, following which the apex court set a deadline for disposal of the petitions.
The MLAs facing disqualification, however, maintained that their meetings with the chief minister were only to seek funds for development works in their constituencies. They argued that newspaper clippings could not be treated as proof of defection and also claimed that the BRS leadership had neither issued them show-cause notices nor invited them to party meetings while continuing to claim that they were still members of the party.
This comprehensive dismissal by the speaker sets the stage for a legal and political showdown, with the BRS gearing up for a high court challenge and the Supreme Court hearing looming.
