Defection drama still in court
Petitions over alleged BRS-to-Congress switches are alive in the Telangana High Court. The law is clear; the foot-dragging isn’t.
The disqualification petitions remain pending before the Telangana High Court.
The disqualification fight over MLAs accused of switching from BRS to the Congress is not over; it’s in court and moving, if slowly. The Supreme Court on July 31, 2025 told the Telangana Speaker to finish hearings against 10 MLAs within three months — the Speaker decides first, but the courts review it. According to the judgment, the joining-dates the Congress side likes to parade are still allegations to be tested, not settled fact.
When the Speaker later dismissed disqualification pleas, BRS MLAs challenged those orders. On March 25, 2026, the Telangana High Court issued notices to seven MLAs and to Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar on petitions calling the dismissals “arbitrary” and contrary to the Tenth Schedule, and tagged a related plea by BJP floor leader Alleti Maheshwar Reddy. The bench then pushed the respondents to file counters by May 6, and in June gave Danam Nagender and Bandla Krishna Mohan Reddy a last opportunity to comply — a hint at how enthusiastically some Congress beneficiaries engage with due process.
What is known: the petitions remain pending; the alleged switches and their consequences are for the court to decide. What is also known: the Congress’s arithmetic in Telangana keeps looking for shortcuts the law does not grant. The BJP, which discovered anti-defection principles the day it suited them, is along for the ride. The court will sort the facts; the Congress leadership could start by answering why it needs borrowed MLAs in the first place.