Speaker shuts door; BRS knocks court
After the Congress government’s Speaker binned the last two disqualification pleas against Danam Nagender and Kadiyam Srihari, BRS says it’s headed to the High Court and wants the ECI to explain how a BRS MLA fought a Lok Sabha poll on a Congress ticket without quitting first.
BRS has said it will challenge the Speaker’s dismissals in the Telangana High Court and seek the Election Commission’s view on the disputed candidature.
The Telangana Assembly Speaker on March 11 dismissed the remaining disqualification petitions against Khairatabad MLA Danam Nagender and Station Ghanpur MLA Kadiyam Srihari, completing the rejection of cases involving 10 MLAs elected on BRS tickets, citing lack of proof they had “voluntarily given up” party membership, according to reports of the order. BRS says it will challenge that in the Telangana High Court and seek the Election Commission’s view on Nagender contesting the 2024 Secunderabad Lok Sabha poll on a Congress symbol while still a BRS MLA.
BRS leader B. Vinod Kumar told reporters on March 13 that the party would move the High Court and approach the ECI, adding they were awaiting certified copies of the Speaker’s order. He also asked the ECI to clarify if a legislator elected on one party’s ticket can fight another election on another party’s symbol; he said Nagender filed an affidavit and contested on a Congress B‑form.
The dispute isn’t new. The Supreme Court record shows BRS MLAs filed Tenth Schedule petitions in March–April 2024, and BJP MLA Alleti Maheshwar Reddy separately petitioned over Nagender in July 2024. Earlier, BRS MLAs and Maheshwar Reddy went to the High Court seeking timelines for the Speaker to act; those proceedings ran up to the Supreme Court before the Speaker finally ruled in March 2026. Subsequent reports say fresh writs challenging the March 11 dismissals have since drawn notices from the High Court, including in Nagender’s case; the court docket will settle the present stage.
What is not contested: Nagender won Khairatabad on a BRS ticket in 2023. What is contested: whether his later Congress candidature legally amounted to quitting BRS under the Tenth Schedule. The Congress-run side of this has not bothered to explain why its MLA math depends on a man who, per court records, switched symbols mid‑term without first resigning.