Danam Nagender Disqualified: Khairatabad Bypoll Looms!
Another by-election appears to be unavoidable in Telangana. The Telangana High Court has disqualified Khairatabad MLA Danam Nagender. With this, the seat is effectively vacant, and an election appears inevitable within the next six months. Apart from disqualifying Nagender, the Telangana High Court has also informed the Speaker and the Election Commission that his seat has fallen vacant. However, Danam Nagender is consulting legal experts on approaching the Supreme Court against the High Court verdict. Nevertheless, most legal experts believe that it is doubtful whether Nagender will get any relief. Several MLAs who contested and won the 2023 Assembly elections on behalf of the BRS subsequently quit the party and joined the ruling Congress. Both the BRS and another party, the BJP, filed complaints over this. The BRS even approached the Supreme Court, alleging that the Speaker was delaying decisions on disqualification petitions concerning MLAs who had defected.
After courts imposed deadlines several times, Telangana Assembly Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar conducted hearings in several rounds and ruled that none of the BRS MLAs, including Danam Nagender, had defected from the party. However, many had expected that Danam Nagender would definitely face disqualification. But the Speaker delivered a verdict in Nagender’s case as well, just as in the cases of the others. There is a very clear difference between Danam Nagender’s defection and that of the others. After winning as an MLA from the BRS, he not only joined the Congress but also contested the subsequent Lok Sabha elections as the Congress candidate from Secunderabad and lost.
The Telangana High Court recently took this very issue as the main basis for disqualifying him. BJP floor leader in the Telangana Assembly Maheshwar Reddy, along with BRS MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy, approached the High Court challenging the Speaker’s verdict regarding the defected MLAs. After conducting hearings in several rounds, the court delivered its verdict on Friday, disqualifying Danam Nagender. This has now become a hot topic in Telangana politics. BRS leaders are welcoming the High Court verdict and warning that the remaining MLAs who switched parties will also face the same fate.
