It appears Telangana state assembly speaker G Prasad Kumar is trying to drag as long as possible the issue of disqualification of the 10 Bharat Rashtra Samithi MLAs who allegedly defected to the Congress over a period of time last year.
Following a Supreme Court direction to dispose of the petitions filed by the BRS leaders on the disqualification of defected MLAs, the Speaker on Tuesday announced that he would begin hearings on the petitions filed against the defected MLAs from November 6.
According to official sources, the Speaker will examine the cases of Bhadrachalam MLA Tellam Venkata Rao and Jagtial MLA Dr. Sanjay Kumar on November 6.
On November 13, hearings will be held for Kamareddy MLA Pocharam Srinivas Reddy and Khairatabad MLA Arikepudi Gandhi. It is learned that the Speaker has already completed hearings for four MLAs earlier.
The disqualification petitions stem from the defection of 10 MLAs, who were elected on BRS tickets in the Assembly elections, but later joined the ruling Congress party.
Following their crossover, the BRS leadership lodged formal complaints with the Speaker, seeking their disqualification under the anti-defection law.
However, the Speaker’s office did not act immediately, prompting the BRS to approach the Telangana high court.
After the high court’s decision did not go in their favour, the party moved the Supreme Court, which on July 31 directed the Speaker to take a decision within three months. The Supreme Court’s deadline ended on October 31.
With the expiry of the court-mandated timeframe, the Speaker has now scheduled hearings to decide on the disqualification of the MLAs who switched parties.
The proceedings are expected to have significant political implications for both the ruling Congress and the opposition BRS in Telangana.
