Telangana Legislative Assembly Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar has issued notices to the dissident BRS MLAs who defected to the Congress. The move follows the Supreme Court’s directive to the Speaker to act on the disqualification petitions that had been pending for over a year.
On Friday, notices were sent to five of the 10 MLAs who had joined the Congress after winning their seats on a BRS ticket. Last month, the Supreme Court directed the Speaker to decide within three months on the disqualification petitions filed under the Anti-Defection Act against the 10 BRS legislators who switched sides.
Following the court’s order, the Speaker consulted the Advocate General and senior lawyers before issuing the notices. The Opposition BRS has sought the disqualification of ten MLAs, including Kadiyam Srihari, Danam Nagender, Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, Sanjay Kumar, Tellam Venkat Rao, Arekapudi Gandhi, Kale Yadaya, Prakash Goud, Krishnamohan Reddy, and Mahipal Reddy. The Speaker is expected to take a final decision after serving notices to all of them.
The defected MLAs are likely to deny that they have formally joined the ruling party. However, Khairatabad MLA Danam Nagender finds himself in a particularly unenviable position, as he contested the recent Lok Sabha elections on a Congress ticket without resigning as a BRS legislator.
Meanwhile, BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao has asked his party workers to gear up for elections in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling.