HYDERABAD: Nine BRS MLAs who have defected to the Congress met Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Sunday to discuss their future course of action in view of the Supreme Court’s directive to the Telangana Assembly Speaker to take a decision on their disqualification within three months.
During the meeting, Khairatabad MLA Danam Nagender is reported to have expressed his willingness to resign and contest the upcoming Jubilee Hills byelection.
It may be recalled that Danam had unsuccessfully contested from the Secunderabad Lok Sabha constituency on a Congress ticket after switching loyalties to the ruling party.
Mohammed Azharuddin, who was another contender for the Jubilee Hills ticket, was recently nominated to the Legislative Council under the Governor’s quota along with Prof M Kodandaram.
According to sources, the defectors claimed that they met the chief minister to discuss matters related to the development of their constituencies.
After the Supreme Court’s direction to the Speaker, one of the turncoat MLAs even denied defecting to the Congress. Gadwal MLA Bandla Krishna Mohan Reddy insisted that he continued to be with the BRS, and said this is what he would state in his reply to the Speaker’s notice.
Dealing with petitions filed by BRS leaders KT Rama Rao, Padi Kaushik Reddy and KP Vivekanand, a bench of Chief Justice of India BR Gavai and Justice Augustine George Masih had set aside a November 22, 2024, order of the Telangana High Court division bench that had overturned a single bench directive to schedule hearings.
“The very foundation of our democracy is shaken when elected representatives are allowed to defect and continue in office without timely adjudication. Parliament had placed trust in the Speaker to act swiftly. That trust, in many cases, has not been honoured,” the court observed.