BRS intensifies legal efforts for disqualification of defectors

Hyderabad, Aug 5 (IANS) The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has intensified its legal efforts to get 10 MLAs disqualified for defecting to the Congress.

BRS working president K. T. Rama Rao on Monday claimed that by-elections in Telangana will be inevitable as the MLAs who defected to the ruling Congress will be disqualified.

Rama Rao along with T. Harish Rao and other senior leaders met legal experts in Delhi as part of the party’s efforts to get turncoat MLAs disqualified.

KTR, as Rama Rao is popularly known, said the BRS was fighting a legal battle for disqualification of the MLAs under the anti-defection law.

A delegation of the party’s senior leaders led by KTR consulted Constitutional experts. He said the BRS would soon file a petition in the Supreme Court for disqualification of the MLAs who switched loyalties.

KTR claimed that the Constitutional experts told them that the court’s verdict within a month would give clarity on the disqualification of defectors. He vowed would teach a lesson to the defectors in the people’s court.

According to BRS, Constitutional expert C. Aryama Sundaram told the delegation that the Supreme Court has already delivered clear judgments in various cases including the Manipur case relating to defections. He opined that unlike in the past, the Speaker can’t keep a decision pending on the disqualification of the defected MLAs.

The BRS leaders handed over to the legal experts copies of the petition filed in the High Court for disqualification of three MLAs and the petition submitted to the Speaker for disqualification of other MLAs.

The legal experts told the BRS leaders that since there are clear guidelines by the Supreme Court, there is no possibility of the High Court keeping the case pending for long. They said that if the High Court does not decide the case, there will be scope for approaching the Supreme Court.

Rama Rao said the party would continue its legal battle in the light of the Supreme Court orders in similar cases and as per the advice given by the legal and Constitutional experts in view. He said the party would soon approach the Supreme Court.

He exuded confidence that the issue of disqualification will be decided in a month either through the High Court or Supreme Court judgement.

KTR slammed Congress for its double standards over the issue of defection. He said on the one hand the Congress is calling for the disqualification of defectors at the national level while on the other it is promoting defections in Telangana, thus damaging the Constitutional spirit. The BRS leader said the BRS with the help of courts would soon teach a lesson to Congress.

BRS leaders and former minister Jagadish Reddy and Gangula Kamalakar, Rajya Sabha members Vaddiraju Ravichandra, former MP and sitting MLA K. Prabhakar Reddy and others attended the meeting.

As many as 10 MLAs of BRS have defected to the Congress since March this year.