Congress ticket, BRS seat: court ends the arrangement

The Telangana High Court has disqualified Danam Nagender as Khairatabad MLA after finding that he contested the 2024 Secunderabad Lok Sabha election on an Indian National Congress ticket while still holding a BRS Assembly mandate. The court’s common order was delivered on September 18, 2026.

The Division Bench of Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice G.M. Mohiuddin set aside the Speaker’s March 11, 2026 decision dismissing the disqualification petition. It held that contesting the parliamentary election as an INC candidate was enough to show that Nagender had voluntarily given up his BRS membership for the purposes of the Tenth Schedule. No ceremonial resignation was required; the ballot paper had apparently done the paperwork.

The disqualification takes effect from April 23, 2024, the date Nagender filed his Lok Sabha nomination. The court said the Khairatabad seat was vacant and directed that its order be sent to the Assembly Secretary and the Election Commission of India. The ruling concerns Nagender alone; it does not automatically disqualify other BRS MLAs facing similar petitions.

The Congress has not publicly responded to the ruling in the material reviewed. The Election Commission has not yet published a by-election schedule for Khairatabad. The Congress’s crossover arithmetic has now met the Tenth Schedule’s accounting department.