Telangana Assembly Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar is set to hold a hearing on January 30 regarding the disqualification petition against MLA Danam Nagender. Nagender, who was elected on a Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) ticket, is accused of switching allegiance to the ruling Congress party. The Speaker has summoned Nagender and BRS MLA Kaushik Reddy, who filed the petition, for the hearing.
Nagender has submitted an affidavit requesting the Speaker to dismiss the disqualification petition. He maintains that he has not resigned from the BRS and has not been informed of any suspension by the party. Despite being elected as a BRS candidate, Nagender attended a Congress party meeting in March 2024 in his personal capacity.
The Speaker has already dismissed petitions to disqualify seven out of 10 BRS MLAs who allegedly defected to the Congress in 2024. He cited a lack of evidence proving the defection and stated that technically, all the MLAs remain part of the BRS. The Speaker is yet to deliver a verdict on the disqualification plea concerning MLA Sanjay Kumar.
Hearings on the disqualification of two other MLAs, Danam Nagender and Kadiyam Srihari, were postponed as they had not responded to the notices served on them. While the BRS accused these MLAs of openly joining the Congress, the MLAs denied the claims, stating that they had only sought funds for constituency development from Chief Minister Revanth Reddy. The BRS alleged that Nagender not only joined the Congress but also contested the 2024 Lok Sabha election on a Congress ticket.
