The Telangana High Court on Friday disqualified Khairatabad MLA Danam Nagender under the anti-defection law, setting aside the Speaker’s decision to let him continue after he defected to the Congress.

Nagender was elected on a Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) ticket in the December 2023 Assembly elections but quit and joined the Congress. The high court ruling comes on the back of a petition filed by BJP floor leader Aleti Maheshwar Reddy and BRS Huzurabad MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy.

The petition challenged Telangana Assembly Speaker G Prasad Kumar’s decision to strike down their request to disqualify Nagender. A Bench comprising Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice G Mohiuddin disqualified Nagender as MLA from the date of his election. The petition was filed after Nagender unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha election in May 2024 as a Congress candidate from the Secunderabad Lok Sabha constituency while he was still an MLA.

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On September 9, 2024, the Telangana HC had directed the Legislative Assembly Secretary to place the disqualification petitions of three MLAs who defected to the Congress before the Assembly and take action within the next four weeks. Justice B Vijaysen Reddy, who was hearing petitions filed against BRS MLAs Danam Nagender, Kadiam Srihari and Tellam Venkat Rao for defecting to the Congress, directed the Assembly secretary to place all three disqualification petitions before the Speaker to draw up schedules for personal hearings of the candidates under the anti-defection law.

The first petition was filed by BJP Nirmal MLA Aleti Maheshwar Reddy, urging the court to direct the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly to disqualify Danam Nagender, the MLA from Khairatabad who joined the Congress from the BRS and contested in the Lok Sabha elections.

Maheshwar Reddy stated in his petition that he visited the Speaker’s office on July 1, 2024, to submit his disqualification petition, but it was not accepted. The second petition against Danam Nagender was filed by BRS Huzurabad MLA P Kaushik Reddy, while the third by BRS Quthbullapur MLA K P Vivekanand Goud sought the disqualification of Tellam Venkat Rao, the MLA from Bhadrachalam, and Kadiyam Srihari, the MLA from Station Ghanpur. The court clubbed all three petitions together.

Kadiyam Srihari won the December 2023 Assembly polls from the Station Ghanpur Assembly constituency as a BRS candidate but quit the BRS and joined the Congress with his daughter, Kadiam Kavya, within three months.

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Kavya won from the Warangal Lok Sabha seat in the April 2024 elections.

Nagender won Khairatabad twice – in 2018 and in 2023 – but defected to the Congress in March 2024, unsuccessfully contesting the general election from Secunderabad and losing to BJP’s G Kishan Reddy. Rao is a first-time MLA and won Bhadrachalam as a BRS candidate in December 2023.