Sources suggest that at least two of the 10 BRS legislators who switched sides and defected to the ruling Congress in Telangana are likely to be disqualified or asked to resign. The development comes after the apex court's strong reaction on Monday, when it instructed the Telangana Assembly Speaker to decide on the pending petitions for the disqualification of the defecting MLAs or face contempt of court.
The two MLAs expected to face a fresh election are Danam Nagender, representing the Khairatabad constituency in Hyderabad, and former minister Kadiyam Srihari from Station Ghanpur in the Warangal district. The thinking within the ruling party appears to be that taking action against at least two legislators will buy the Speaker more time to decide on the disqualification, or otherwise, of the eight remaining MLAs. On Monday, the Supreme Court rejected the Speaker’s plea seeking more time to examine the issue and set a one-week deadline.
Apart from the two named, the eight other legislators who switched sides are: Kale Yadayya (Chevella), Prakash Goud (Rajendranagar), Gudem Mahipal Reddy, Pocharam Srinivas Reddy (Banswada), Tellam Venkata Rao (Bhadrachalam), Bandla Krishna Mohan Reddy (Gadwal), Arikepudi Gandhi (Serilingampally), and Sanjay Kumar (Jagtial).
The ruling party, either out of overenthusiasm or wilfully, officially acknowledged the defection intent whenever Bharat Rashtra Samithi MLAs were individually photographed with Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and other All India Congress Committee (AICC) leaders, making their intentions public via social media posts.
However, in the case of Nagender and Srihari, the evidence extends beyond social media publicity. Having been elected as an MLA for the BRS, Nagender contested the subsequent Lok Sabha elections as a Congress candidate. Similarly, Srihari officially campaigned for the Congress in the Lok Sabha election and was even named as one of the coordinators for the graduate MLC elections held around the same time.
The BRS submitted evidence against all 10 legislators to the Speaker, who had called eight of them to present their version. Only Srihari and Nagender have not yet appeared before the Speaker.
Fresh from the victory in the Jubilee Hills by-election, Revanth Reddy and other top leaders of the Congress seem confident that the political momentum is in their favour, mitigating the risk of going for another round of by-elections. In terms of public perception, the general thought process is that it would be more favourable to have the two MLAs resign rather than face outright disqualification.
Also read: SC issues contempt notice to Telangana speaker
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