Congress’s borrowed MLA now belongs to the record
The Telangana High Court disqualified Danam Nagender from the Assembly and declared the Khairatabad seat vacant, after he contested the 2024 Lok Sabha election as a Congress candidate while serving as a BRS MLA.
The Telangana High Court declared the Khairatabad Assembly seat vacant.
The Telangana High Court has disqualified Danam Nagender from the Legislative Assembly and declared the Khairatabad seat vacant. The ruling sets aside Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar’s decision rejecting the disqualification petition. The Congress’s arithmetic now has a vacancy attached to it.
A division bench of Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice G.M. Mohiuddin said Nagender stood disqualified from April 23, 2024 — the date he contested the Secunderabad Lok Sabha election as a Congress candidate while being a BRS MLA. “As a result thereof, the said seat (Khairatabad) is rendered vacant,” the court said, according to the reported order.
The petitions were filed by BJP MLA Alleti Maheshwar Reddy and BRS MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy. The court directed its Registry to communicate the order to the Assembly Speaker and the Election Commission. A by-election has not yet been announced; the Election Commission must first process the vacancy and issue a schedule.
The Congress government and party have not publicly answered the basic question raised by the ruling: how long does borrowed representation count as representation? Khairatabad now has the court’s answer.