In a significant setback for the ruling Congress led by Chief Minister Revanth Reddy in Telangana, the Supreme Court on Thursday set aside the ruling of the Telangana High Court that stayed disqualification proceedings against 10 MLAs of the Bharath Rashtra Samiti who had switched over to the Congress.
In its order, potentially setting the stage for by-elections to polls in these 10 seats, the court also directed Assembly Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar to decide on the disqualification of these MLAs within three months.
"We thank the CJI (BR Gavai) for ensuring that the democratic structure of this country isn’t eroded by malicious methods. I hope Rahul Gandhi who in his ‘Panch Nyay’ advocated for stronger anti-defection laws and automatic cancellation upon defection, will welcome this decision. I dare you to stand by your own preachings, Mr Gandhi!" BRS working president KT Rama Rao said after the apex court's ruling.
The BRS has been critical of the Congress, particularly Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, over the issue.
Following the SC order, Rao expressed hope that the Congress would accept the order and not use the Speaker's position to "make a mockery of the Constitution" any further. Rao further said that the defection of the 10 MLAs of the BRS to the Congress was "illegitimate".
The development comes as a blow to Revanth Reddy who had emphatically declared in March on the floor of the House that there would be no bypolls even if BRS legislators switched sides. The remarks had drawn the ire of the top court with the bench wondering if the court had erred in letting him off in August last year in a contempt case.
"Having experienced it on an earlier occasion, was your Chief Minister not expected to at least exercise some degree of restraint? So did we commit a mistake by letting him off that time, not taking action for contempt," Justice Gavai had then said.
The numbers, however, are on with the Congress even if the 10 MLAs in question are disqualified. The Congress, on its own, has 64 MLAs in the 119-member Assembly. The BRS, on the other hand, has 39 MLAs followed by the BJP, AIMIM and CPI with eight, seven and one MLA, respectively.
Both the Congress and the BRS have said they are ready for bypolls and expressed confidence of winning the 10 seats that may see bypolls.
The 10 BRS MLAs who switched sides to the Congress include T Prakash Goud (Rajendranagar), Pocharam Srinivas Reddy (Banswada), Danam Nagender (Khairatabad), Kale Yadaiah (Chevella), Dr Sanjay Kumar (Jagtial), Kadiam Srihari (Station Ghanpur), Tellam Venkat Rao (Bhadrachalam) and Arekapudi Gandhi (Serilingampalli).
Gadwal MLA Bandla Krishna Mohan Reddy, however, is learnt to have switched back to the BRS fold already.
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