HYDERABAD: The BRS MLAs who filed disqualification petitions against the 10 defected legislators on Monday informed the State Legislature secretary that the turncoats had betrayed the pink party and can no longer be considered as its MLAs.
In their rejoinders to the explanation given by the defectors, the BRS leaders recalled that the turncoats had claimed that they did not change the party and Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy offered scarfs as a mark of respect when they met him to discuss development works in their respective Assembly segments.
“If these MLAs insist that they have not defected to the Congress, they should file a petition before BRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao. Why did the 10 legislators, after receiving disqualification notices, rush to Revanth Reddy instead of going to KCR?” they wondered and demanded that the Assembly Speaker initiate immediate action against them.
The rejoinders were submitted by MLAs G Jagadish Reddy, KP Vivekanand and Chinta Prabhakar to Assembly Joint Secretary Upender Reddy against the explanations submitted by the defected MLAs — Pocharam Srinivas Reddy (Banswada), Krishna Mohan Reddy (Gadwal), Kale Yadaiah (Chevella), Tellam Venkata Rao (Bhadrachalam), Gudem Mahipal Reddy (Patancheru) and Dr M Sanjay Kumar (Jagtial).
No response from Kadiyam, DanamMLAs Kadiyam Srihari and Danam Nagender did not respond to the Speaker’s notices, so no rejoinders were filed in their cases.
Regarding the petitions filed against Arekapudi Gandhi and Prakash Goud, BRS MLA Kalvakuntla Sanjay, who is currently on an overseas tour, is likely to submit his rejoinders within three to four days of his return to the state.
Speaking to reporters later, Jagadish Reddy, Vivekanand and Chinta Prabhakar said that some turncoat MLAs told the Speaker that they were innocent and that they still have faith in Chandrasekhar Rao’s leadership.
“They tried to portray themselves as innocent, but in reality, all 10 MLAs attended Congress party meetings, rallies and programmes,” the BRS leaders added.
“For instance, Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, during a meeting, asked party leaders to hoist the Congress flag in the upcoming local body elections,” they recalled.
“Jagtial MLA Dr Sanjay claimed that when he went to discuss development in his constituency, the chief minister suddenly presented a scarf to him. If it is so, why did the advertisements he placed in the newspapers feature Congress leaders,” they asked.
They alleged that the 10 MLAs defected to the ruling party only for personal gains.