Hyderabad: Jalagam seeks date for oath as MLA

Hyderabad: Though the Telangana High Court has given its verdict disqualifying Kothagudem MLA Vanama Venkateswara Rao for not giving complete information in his election affidavit and declared Jalagam Venkat Rao as elected, it now appears that Jalagam will not be able to take the oath so soon.

Vanama is approaching the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the High Court verdict. On Wednesday, he filed an interim application in the High Court seeking a direction to suspend the judgment. Vanama said he had not yet received the certified copy of the judgment so as to approach the Supreme Court against the High Court order. He also contended that he would be contesting the ensuing Assembly elections from Kothagudem.

On the other hand, Jalagam Venkat Rao also tried to meet Assembly Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy to urge him to fix the date and time for his oath-taking ceremony. As the Speaker was not present in the Assembly chambers, he gave his representation to the Assembly Secretary. Later, Jalagam met Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Vikas Raj and handed over the 88-page order copy.

The BRS leader is confident that with the order copy having a mention about the word ‘forthwith’, it would pave the route clear for him to take oath as MLA.

Sources in the party said that since this was a politically sensitive issue involving two BRS leaders, party chief K Chandrashekar Rao may take a decision after due consideration and it may take some time.

It may be mentioned here that the BRS is not so strong in Khammam and faces a serious challenge from the Congress, particularly after the exit of Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy. He switched over to the Congress recently.

Added to this, the BRS is facing groupism in the constituency. In the backdrop of this situation, KCR, sources say, will not take a quick decision regarding on who should be given the party ticket. It may be mentioned here that even a bureaucrat has been aspiring for a ticket from Khammam.