Venkata Rao challenged Venkateswara Rao's election on the ground that the latter had given misleading information in the affidavit.
Published Jul 25, 2023 | 3:11 PM ⚊ Updated Jul 25, 2023 | 3:11 PM
Vanama Venkateswara Rao, Jalagam Venkata Rao
Net-net, there is no loss for the ruling BRS in Telangana.
The party’s Kothagudem MLA Vanama Venkateswara Rao — who contested on a Congress ticket in the 2018 Assembly election and then defected to the ruling party — was disqualified by the Telangana High Court on Tuesday, 25 July.
His nearest rival, Jalagam Venkata Rao, who contested on the BRS ticket, was declared the winner
Venkata Rao challenged Venkateswara Rao’s election in 2019 in the high court on the ground that the latter had given misleading information in the affidavit that he had filed with the Election Commission of India (ECI).
Venkata Rao prayed to the court to declare him as elected from Kothagudem. The high court, after four years of courtroom battle, held that Venkateswara Rao stood disqualified as Kothagudem MLA.
The court also asked Venkateswara Rao to pay a fine of ₹5 lakh. In 2018, Vanama Venkateswara Rao won on the Congress ticket but joined the TRS (now BRS) later.
Dr Justice Radha Rani of the high court delivered the judgement for not giving complete property details of himself and his wife in Form 26 at the time of filing of nomination papers.
Venkateswara Rao declared his intent to join the BRS in March 2019. By then seven Congress members had already decided to defect to the BRS.
As soon as the number reached 12, the entire pack, which constituted two-thirds of the party in the legislative Assembly, joined the BRS in June 2019 which technically became a merger and therefore did not attract the provisions of the anti-defection law.
Vanama Venkateswara Rao was elected to the Assembly in 1989, 1999, and 2004. In 2018, he won over Jalagam Venkat Rao with a margin of over 4,100 votes.
Jalagam Venkata Rao is the son of the former chief minister of the erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh late Jalagam Vengala Rao. Venkata Rao won from Sattupally in 2004 on the Congress ticket.
In 2014, he won on the BRS ticket from Kothagudem.
On 6 January this year, Telangana Congress chief A Revanth Reddy had lodged a complaint with Moinabad police station alleging that the BRS had poached its 12 MLAs in 2019 with offers of positions of power and other inducements.
After lodging the complaint, Revanth Reddy said, “We want the CBI to conduct an inquiry into the poaching of our MLAs and take necessary action. Since the recent case of Cash for MLAs has been transferred to the CBI, let the central investigation agency look into our complaint as well,” he said.
The complaint was filed when the investigation regarding the BRS claim that the BJP tried to poach MLA Pilot Rohith Reddy and three other BRS MLAs was going on.
