Telangana: TMC MLA Mukul Roy’s disqualification makes BRS hopeful

As the Calcutta High Court disqualified senior Trinamool Congress leader Mukul Roy as an MLA, the BRS in Telangana has become hopeful about the disqualification petitions filed by the party against the ten rebel legislators who have jumped ship and joined the Congress.

Currently, the Speaker of the Assembly has started hearing the disqualification petitions filed by the Opposition BRS and BJP, but only after the Supreme Court stepped in. On 17 November, the Supreme Court is slated to hear a petition seeking contempt proceedings against the Telangana Speaker, alleging he did not comply with the apex court’s directive to decide on the disqualification pleas against the ten MLAs.

Advertisement

The disqualification of Mukul Roy as an MLA has come as a morale booster for the BRS, which has been running from pillar to post to get the ten dissident MLAs disqualified. One of the rebel BRS legislators, Danam Nagender, brazenly even contested in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections on a Congress ticket from Secunderabad without resigning as an MLA. All ten MLAs against whom the disqualification petitions were filed got elected on BRS tickets. They almost immediately joined the Congress after the party came to power.

The BRS has been fighting legal battles, approaching the High Court and the Supreme Court after Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar sat on the disqualification petition for months. Following the Kolkata High Court’s directive, BRS spokesperson Krishank said, “Today in Bengal, next in Telangana—10 MLAs who defected from BRS to Congress.”

On July 31, the Supreme Court had directed the Assembly Speaker to decide within three months on the petitions of disqualification against the MLAs. The BRS has alleged that Congress was prolonging the issue since the current Chief Justice of India, whose bench had given the direction, will retire soon.