Hyderabad: In a relief to five of the 10 defected Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLAs, Telangana Assembly Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar on Wednesday, December 17, dismissed the disqualification petitions filed against them.
The Speaker granted relief to Bhadrachalam MLA Tellam Venkat Rao, Gadwal MLA B Krishna Mohan Reddy, Rajendranagar MLA T Prakash Goud, Patancheru MLA G Mahipal Reddy and Serilingampally MLA Arekapudi Gandhi, citing a lack of evidence that they had formally jumped to the Congress after the 2023 Assembly elections.
In response to the Speaker’s verdict, BRS slammed Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, saying that while the leader preaches constitutional morality in Delhi, his party violates it in Telangana.
BRS working president KTR criticised him saying, “Rahul Gandhi will go down in history as an incompetent leader who failed to respect the very anti-defection Law brought in by his own father, late Rajiv Gandhi.”
He claimed that the Speaker has succumbed to local Congress leadership’s pressure and has ignored the spirit of the judgments delivered by the Supreme Court.
He said that Congress is backing away from disqualifying the defectors solely out of fear of facing by-elections and added that despite Congress celebrating now, the public has already disqualified them in their court.
Former health minister Harish Rao made also similar comments. “Rahul Gandhi’s “Save the Constitution” slogan stands exposed today with the Telangana Congress Speaker’s ruling on defected MLAs. This is not saving the Constitution, but politically manipulating and undermining it by the Telangana Congress Chief Minister @revanth_anumula and his government,” he stated in a post on X.
Calling the Speaker’s move ‘absurd’ the BRS party’s X handle pointed out that the MLAs in question had themselves admitted to the media that they had defected to Congress in the presence of Telangana chief minister Revanth Reddy.
Ten BRS MLAs who were accused of switching loyalties to the Congress include Danam Nagender (Khairatabad constituency), Tellam Venkat Rao (Bhadrachalam), Kadiyam Srihari (Station Ghanpur), Pocharam Srinivas Reddy (Banswada), M Sanjay Kumar (Jagtial), Arekapudi Gandhi (Serilingampally), T Prakash Goud (Rajendranagar), B Krishna Mohan Reddy (Gadwal), G Mahipal Reddy (Patancheru), and Kale Yadaiah (Chevella).
After BRS approached the Supreme Court in the disqualification case, the top court, on July 31, ordered the Telangana Speaker to decide on the petitions within three months.
The hearings began on September 29 with T Prakash Goud, K Yadayya, Gudem Mahipal Reddy and Bandla Krishnamohan Reddy in the first batch, followed by Tellam Venkata Rao, M Sanjay Kumar, Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, and Arekapudi Gandhi in the second batch.
Two MLAs, Danam Nagendar and Kadiyam Srihari, were issued notices for a third time in November after they failed to respond to earlier notices.
A contempt notice was also served to the Telangana Speaker on November 17 by the Supreme Court after he failed to decide on the petitions within the given time frame.
The hearings finally concluded on Wednesday, November 20.
This post was last modified on December 17, 2025 8:00 pm