Published Sep 18, 2026 | 4:38 PM ⚊ Updated Sep 18, 2026 | 4:42 PM
Danam Nagender
The Telangana High Court has disqualified Khairatabad MLA Danam Nagender under the anti-defection law on Friday, September 18, setting aside the earlier decision of Assembly Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar.
A division bench of Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice GM Mohiuddin ruled that Nagender stood disqualified as a member of the Telangana Legislative Assembly with effect from April 23, 2024, under Paragraph 2(1)(a) of the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution.
Nagender was elected from the Khairatabad constituency in the December 2023 Telangana Assembly elections on a Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) ticket. In 2024, he contested from the Secunderabad Lok Sabha seat as a Congress candidate without resigning from the BRS or the Assembly. He was unsuccessful in the parliamentary polls but continued as an MLA, later aligning with the ruling Congress.
BRS MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy and BJP Legislature Party leader Alleti Maheshwar Reddy had filed disqualification petitions before the Speaker, arguing that contesting on another party’s ticket amounted to voluntarily giving up membership of the original party. The Speaker dismissed these petitions on March 11, 2026, holding that there was insufficient evidence of defection. The petitioners then challenged the Speaker’s order in the High Court through writ petitions.
The petitioners contended that filing the nomination as a Congress candidate on April 23, 2024, itself constituted voluntary relinquishment under the Tenth Schedule, citing Supreme Court precedents that no further inquiry is needed in such clear cases. The counsel for Nagender and the Speaker argued that media reports and photographs of him wearing a Congress scarf did not prove formal defection and that the BRS had not expelled him.
The High Court reserved its verdict after hearing the detailed arguments.
On Friday, the Court rejected the Speaker’s findings and declared the disqualification effective from the date the nomination was filed.
BRS working president KTR greeted the judgment with the slogan ‘Satyamave Jayate!’
“The rest of the defectors will also meet the same fate soon,” he posted on X.
This is a significant application of the anti-defection law in Telangana, where multiple BRS MLAs have faced similar allegations of switching to Congress after the 2023 elections.
Similar petitions against other MLAs remain pending. The ruling may lead to recovery of salary and benefits drawn by Nagender as MLA after April 23, 2024, and trigger a by-election in Khairatabad. It underscores judicial oversight of Speakers’ decisions under the Tenth Schedule and reinforces that simultaneous affiliation with two parties is impermissible.
The judgment marks a major development in Telangana politics, impacting the Congress government’s numbers in the Assembly and highlighting the ongoing legal battles over defections.
(Edited by R Rajesh Kumar.)
