Blurb:
Telangana Assembly Speaker initiated hearings on petitions seeking disqualification of MLA Danam Nagender over alleged defection from BRS.
Hyderabad
Telangana Assembly Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar on Friday began hearing petitions seeking the disqualification of MLA Danam Nagender, who was elected on a Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) ticket but is accused of shifting loyalties to the ruling Indian National Congress.
The Speaker commenced proceedings by hearing arguments from the counsels representing BRS MLA Kaushik Reddy and BJP floor leader A. Maheshwar Reddy. Evidence presented by the petitioners will be recorded during this phase. The Speaker is expected to hear arguments from Nagender’s counsel at a later stage. Nagender, however, said he has not yet received any notice from the Speaker directing him to appear in person.
The hearing follows a recent directive from the Supreme Court of India, which granted the Speaker two weeks to decide on petitions related to the disqualification of the remaining MLAs accused of defection. The top court’s intervention has accelerated proceedings that have been pending for several months.
Earlier, the Speaker dismissed petitions seeking the disqualification of seven out of ten BRS MLAs who were alleged to have defected to the Congress in 2024. Ruling on those pleas, he said the petitioners failed to provide sufficient evidence to establish that the MLAs had formally joined the Congress, adding that they were technically still members of the BRS.
Last year, the Speaker had completed hearings on disqualification petitions against eight MLAs and reserved orders. He is yet to pronounce a decision on the plea seeking disqualification of MLA Sanjay Kumar. Hearings involving two other MLAs Danam Nagender and Kadiyam Srihari could not proceed earlier as they had not submitted replies to the notices served on them.
The BRS has maintained that the MLAs in question openly aligned with the Congress and even sat in the Treasury Benches during Assembly sessions. The MLAs, however, have denied formally joining the ruling party, setting the stage for a closely watched legal and political battle in Telangana.