HYDERABAD: Both BRS and BJP have welcomed Thursday’s Supreme Court verdict upholding the Telangana High Court order disqualifying Danam Nagender as an MLA.
The two parties, which approached the Assembly Speaker seeking Nagender’s disqualification for switching loyalties from the opposition BRS to the ruling Congress, hoped that the apex court ruling would put an end to defection of elected people’s representatives from one party to another.
Terming the verdict a slap in the face of those who indulge in defections, Union Coal & Mines Minister G Kishan Reddy said: “This would teach the BRS and Congress a befitting lesson.”
In a press statement issued here, Kishan said: “It has become a practice in the state for BRS and Congress to indulge in horse trading of MLAs and allot ministerial berths to those who defect to the ruling party.”
“This is against the law. People will teach the BRS and Congress a befitting lesson in the Khairatabad byelection, which is imminent now,” he said, while expressing confidence in the BJP securing the seat.
Slamming the BRS and Congress for criticising defections when in the opposition and indulging in the same practices when in power, he said: “The courts have exposed their double standards.”
Minister of State for Home Affairs Bandi Sanjay said that the BRS and Congress have no right to even contest the byelection.
BJP Legislature Party leader Alleti Maheshwar Reddy, who had approached the court seeking action against Danam Nagender, welcomed the Supreme Court ruling. He also said that Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy “encouraging such behaviour” is a case of fence grazing the crop.
State BJP chief N Ramachander Rao called the verdict a historic victory for democracy. He also credited the BJP Legislature Party for the development.