T'gana speaker clears 2 more BRS MLAs

Telangana Assembly Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar on Thursday dismissed the petitions to disqualify two BRS MLAs who allegedly shifted loyalties to the ruling Congress.

Pronouncing the orders on the petitions for disqualification of Pocharam Srinivas Reddy and Kale Yadaiah, he said that there is no evidence that they defected to the Congress.

The Speaker ruled that the anti-defection law does not apply to the two MLAs and that they are technically still in Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).

With this, the Speaker has dismissed petitions for the disqualification of seven out of 10 BRS MLAs, who had allegedly crossed over to the Congress.

Last month, the Speaker dismissed the petitions for the disqualification of five MLAs - Tellam Venkat Rao, Bandla Krishna Mohan Reddy, T. Prakash Goud, Gudem Mahipal Reddy, and Arekapudi Gandhi.

The Speaker is yet to pronounce the order on the plea for the disqualification of Sanjay Kumar.

He had completed the hearing on the petitions for the disqualification of eight MLAs and reserved the orders.

The hearing on the disqualification of two other MLAs, Danam Nagender and Kadiyam Srihari, is likely after they submit their replies to the notices served on them.

They sought more time to respond to the notice sent by the Speaker in November.

The BRS had filed petitions for the disqualification of 10 MLAs who were elected to the Assembly on its ticket in the 2023 elections but switched loyalties to Congress in 2024.

While the BRS complained that these MLAs openly joined the Congress and even sat in the treasury benches in the Assembly, the MLAs denied that they joined the ruling party.

They contended that they only met Chief Minister Revanth Reddy to seek funds for the development of their constituencies.

The Supreme Court, on November 17, issued a contempt notice to the Telangana Speaker for not complying with its directive to decide on disqualification pleas against the 10 MLAs.

On July 31, a bench headed by the then Chief Justice B.R. Gavai had directed the Assembly Speaker to decide in three months the matter of the disqualification of the 10 MLAs.

The bench termed the non-compliance of its earlier directions as the grossest kind of contempt while issuing notices to the Speaker and others on the pleas filed by the BRS leaders.