Vijaya Reddy’s election plea likely to help Congress

Hyderabad: Congress leader P. Vijaya Reddy may become the legislator of the Khairatabad Assembly constituency, which fell vacant following the disqualification of incumbent Danam Nagender, if she had her way in the Telangana High Court.

Twists and turns continue to mark the Khairatabad assembly seat with the High Court taking up on Thursday nearly a three-year-old case filed by Vijaya Reddy accusing Nagender of concealing crucial information about family assets in the election affidavit.

There were precedents, including one in Telangana, wherein the courts declared the nearest rival as an MLA when they found the elected MLA concealed information. “It will be a winning battle without bloodshed for us,” said a Congress minister referring to Vijaya Reddy’s chances of becoming MLA.

It will be a win-win situation for all as they can avoid poll expenditure of crores of rupees for an election which they are not sure of winning and give just a two-year term even if they win, said the minister. He, however, exuded confidence that the ruling party would win in the event of election also.

The High Court on July 25, 2023, declared the election of then Kothagudem MLA Vanama Venkateswara Rao invalid on similar charges of concealing information in the affidavit. The court also declared the nearest rival and petitioner Jalagam Venkat Rao as the MLA. Jalagam was, however, unlucky because the Supreme Court stayed the order and within a few months, elections for the assembly were declared.

“There are a lot of ifs and buts but there is a possibility of Vijaya Reddy becoming the MLA,” said an official from the Election Commission of India on condition of anonymity. Interestingly, the ECI gave an undertaking, though orally, to the HC that it would withhold the poll notification till the HC disposed of Vijaya Reddy’s petition. The HC asked ECI to submit the undertaking through an affidavit.

The first challenge for Vijaya Reddy would be proving her allegations in the High Court that too at the earliest. “The precedents also show that the cases took years to reach finality. The HC took five years to decide on Jalagam’s petition. In the present case also, Vijaya Reddy filed a petition almost three years ago,” pointed out a senior advocate.

According to the legal experts, the chances of Nagender challenging the High Court order, if it went in favour of Vijaya Reddy, were bleak as he was already disqualified by the HC and the apex court upheld the disqualification.

“Even if anyone challenges the ECI withholding of poll notification, chances of fixing a time frame to decide on Vijaya Reddy’s poll notification are more than directing the ECI to announce poll notification during the pendency of a case in the High Court,” said the advocate.