Speaker Rejects BRS Plea Against Five MLAs

Hyderabad: The BRS’ battle to prove that 10 of its MLAs had defected to the Congress received a blow on Wednesday with Telangana Speaker G. Prasad Kumar rejecting anti-defection petitions against five of the 10 MLAs.

Announcing his decision as part of the proceedings of a Tribunal set up to investigate the charges of defection levelled by BRS, the Speaker said the five MLAs — Tellam Venkatrao, Bandla Krishnamohan Reddy, Gudem Mahipal Reddy, Prakash Goud, and Arekapudi Gandhi — can continue as MLAs.

Following the Speaker’s decision, Secretary to the Legislature, Dr. V. Narasimha Charyulu, in a press release said the Speaker, who is also the chairman of the Tribunal, dismissed the petitions “after considering the merits”.

The release said the Speaker’s decision followed examination of the petitions, consideration of the material placed on record, and “after strictly adhering to the principles of natural justice by granting adequate opportunity of hearing to all concerned parties.”

There was, however, no word on when the Speaker will announce his decision on five other MLAs — Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, Kale Yadaiah, Dr. Sanjay Kumar, Danam Nagender and Kadiam Srihari — who too, the BRS alleges, defected to Congress. Incidentally, with exceptions of Nagender and Srihari, all the alleged turncoats had submitted affidavits and attended the Tribunal hearings to present their cases to show they did not quit the BRS, or join the Congress.

Nagender and Srihari were sent multiple notices to respond to the allegations levelled by BRS MLAs who filed the anti-defection petitions, but they failed to do so. Both had sought additional time from the Tribunal to respond. However, a Supreme Court imposed deadline for the Speaker to decide on this issue of defections is set to expire this week.