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Hyderabad, Nov 23 (IANS) Telangana Assembly member Danam Nagendra, one of the 10 BRS MLAs who have reportedly switched allegiance to the Congress party, has sought more time to respond to the notice sent by Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar.
Nagendra, who represents Hyderabad’s Khairatabad constituency, has written a letter to the Speaker seeking additional time to respond to the notice.
The Speaker has reportedly completed hearing on the petition seeking disqualification of eight MLAs from Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) who joined the ruling Congress party.
The Speaker issued fresh notices to Nagendra and Kadiam Srihari on 20 November and directed them to respond by 23 November. This was the third time that notices had been issued to both the MLAs after they failed to respond to the earlier notices.
Srihari has already sought more time to respond to the latest notice.
BRS had filed the petition to disqualify 10 MLAs who were elected to the Assembly on BRS tickets in the 2023 elections but switched loyalties to the Congress in 2024.
The Speaker suspended eight MLAs – Kale Yadaiah, Krishna Mohan Reddy, G. The hearing on the disqualification petitions of Mahipal Reddy, T. Prakash Goud, Sanjay Kumar, Arekapudi Gandhi, Pocharam Srinivas Reddy and Telam Venkata Rao has been completed. After hearing the arguments of both the parties, the Speaker reserved his order.
While BRS complained that these MLAs openly joined the Congress party and even sat in the ruling party in the Assembly, the MLAs denied that they had joined the ruling party. He argued that he had met Chief Minister Revanth Reddy only to ask for funds for the development of his constituencies.
BRS brought to the notice of the Speaker that Nagendra not only joined Congress but also contested the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from Secunderabad on Congress ticket. It also alleged that Kadiyam Srihari openly campaigned for his daughter Kadiyam Kaviya, who had contested the Lok Sabha elections from Warangal constituency as a Congress candidate.
The Supreme Court on November 17 issued a contempt notice to the Telangana Speaker for not following its direction to decide on the disqualification petitions against 10 MLAs.
On July 31, a bench headed by Chief Justice BR Gavai had directed the Assembly Speaker to take a decision on the disqualification case of 10 MLAs within three months.
The bench termed the non-compliance of its earlier directions while issuing notices to the Speaker and others on the petitions filed by the BRS leaders as gross contempt. The bench also issued notice on a separate petition filed by the Speaker’s office, seeking extension of eight weeks to decide the disqualification petitions.
The bench fixed the next hearing of the case after four weeks.
–IANS
MS/PGH