Speaker gives clean chit to Danam, Kadiyam

A day before the final hearing in the Supreme Court on the disqualification petitions relating to turncoat legislators, Telangana Assembly Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar, apparently to stave off contempt proceedings, on Wednesday gave his verdict on the defection pleas filed against MLAs Danam Nagender and Kadiyam Srihari giving clean chit to both of them.

The Speaker dismissed the disqualification petitions after taking up hearing and in light of the statements of the two MLAs that they were in the BRS party. The Speaker reportedly said that “there was no evidence that the MLAs have changed the party”. Based on the statements given by them, a clean chit was given to them.

Danam Nagender (Khairatabad) and Kadiyam Srihari (Station Ghanpur) had contested and won on the BRS ticket in the 2023 Assembly elections. They were facing charges under the anti-defection law after the Bharat Rashtra Samithi and Bharatiya Janata Party leaders filed petitions against them. With this, the Speaker has given clean chit to all the 10 MLAs of the BRS, who were facing charges under the anti-defection law.

Previously the Speaker gave a clean chit to BRS MLAs including T Prakash Goud (Rajendranagar), Bandla Krishnamohan Reddy (Gadwal), Kale Yadaiah (Chevella), Gudem Mahipal Reddy (Patancheru), Pocharam Srinivas Reddy (Banswada), Tellam Venkat Rao (Bhadrachalam), Arikepudi Gandhi (Serilingampally) and M Sanjay Kumar (Jagtial).

The BRS leaders had filed a petition against the 10 MLAs, who joined the Congress and sought their disqualification. After filing the petitions, the BRS leaders approached the High Court alleging that there was deliberate delay by the Speaker in taking a decision. The issue went up to the Supreme Court, which at one point warned the Speaker to take a decision on the petition or get ready to face contempt. During the hearings, the Supreme Court had even asked the Speaker to decide where he would want to spend his New Year’s Eve.

The BRS leaders MLAs Padi Kaushik Reddy, KP Vivekananda and others had filed petitions in the Supreme Court. The BRS leaders had argued that Danam Nagender had contested in the Lok Sabha polls on a Congress ticket. Similarly, Srihari joined Congress and got a ticket for his daughter Kavya.