Hyderabad: BRS will go to Supreme Court in the matter of disqualification of defecting MLAs

Hyderabad: The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has decided to move the Supreme Court to disqualify party MLAs who joined the ruling Congress in defiance of the mandate in the recently held assembly elections. The party leadership took this decision in consultation with legal experts in view of the completion of three months since Khairatabad MLA Danam Nagendra joined the Congress. According to a previous Supreme Court verdict, the Assembly Speaker should decide on disqualification petitions within three months. According to paragraphs 30 and 33 of this verdict, the High Court should take immediate action on such cases. The hearing regarding the disqualification of Danam Nagendra is scheduled in the High Court on June 27. If the High Court does not rule in favour of disqualifying Nagendra, the BRS will approach the Supreme Court without delay. Along with Nagendra, the party also plans to challenge the defection of other MLAs in the Supreme Court. Reacting to BRS MLAs quitting the party and joining the ruling Congress, BRS working president KT Rama Rao on Monday said the party will not be deterred by such defections. He reminded that people’s power is always stronger than those in power. “We have faced many defections of MLAs in 2004-06, when the Congress was in power. Telangana responded strongly to this by leading a people’s movement and finally the Congress had to bow its head. History will repeat itself,” he said on ‘X’. Former ministers L Ramana and Rajesham Goud as well as BRSV (student wing) president Gellu Srinivas Yadav criticised the Congress’ double standards with regard to defections of elected representatives. “Is it Rahul Gandhi’s Congress or Revanth Reddy’s Congress? While Rahul Gandhi is demanding immediate disqualification of defecting MLAs, Revanth Reddy is encouraging them,” Ramana said. He termed Jagitial MLA Sanjay Kumar’s decision as unethical. In the assembly elections held last year, the BRS had won 39 of the total 119 assembly seats, while the Congress came to power with 64 seats. However, the Congress’s tally increased to 65 after it won the Secunderabad Cantt by-election following the death of BRS MLA G Lasya Nandita in a road accident earlier this year. Since the assembly elections held in December last year, five of the 39 BRS MLAs have left the party. Danam Nagendra, Kadiyam Srihari and Telam Venkat Rao joined the Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, while Banswada MLA Pocharam Srinivas Reddy and Jagitial MLA Sanjay Kumar joined the party last week.