Khairatabad seat vacant; Congress gets a legal headache
The Telangana High Court has disqualified Danam Nagender, but the Election Commission has not yet notified a by-election. The paperwork, for once, is still ahead of the campaign slogans.
The court has declared the Khairatabad seat vacant; a by-election notification has not yet followed.
The Telangana High Court has disqualified Danam Nagender from the Assembly and declared the Khairatabad seat vacant, according to reports quoting the September 18 order. The court said the disqualification operates from April 23, 2024, after Nagender contested the Secunderabad Lok Sabha election on a Congress ticket while representing BRS in the Assembly.
Nagender won Khairatabad in 2023 on a BRS ticket with 67,368 votes, defeating Congress’s P. Vijaya Reddy by 22,010 votes, the Election Commission’s statistical report records. BRS MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy and BJP MLA Alleti Maheshwar Reddy had sought his disqualification. The Assembly Speaker rejected the petitions on March 11, 2026; the High Court then set that decision aside.
The ruling opens the possibility of a by-election, not a scheduled one. The Election Commission material reviewed contains no Khairatabad notification, polling date or candidate process. Reports say Nagender has moved the Supreme Court, but no current listing, stay or interim order was located. Congress, BRS and BJP have no confirmed candidates in the material reviewed. Congress now has a vacant seat and a legal explanation to give before it has a campaign to run.