Hyderabad, March 11 (IANS) The BJP in Telangana has termed as mockery of the Constitution the judgment of Telangana Assembly Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar, dismissing petitions for disqualification of BRS MLAs who had defected to ruling Congress party.

State BJP president, N. Ramchander Rao, called Wednesday’s verdict by the Speaker on the petitions for disqualification of Danam Nagender and Kadiyam Srihari as “absolute mockery of the Constitution”.

In his post on ‘X’, Ramchander Rao took potshots at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

“The ruling delivered today by the Telangana Speaker in the MLA defection case is a striking example of the kind of respect for the Constitution that RG often claims to champion,” wrote the BJP chief.

“Consider the case of Danam Nagender: He was elected to the Telangana Assembly in December 2023 as a candidate of the BRS. Shortly thereafter, he switched to the INC and even contested the 2024 Lok Sabha elections as a Congress candidate.

“Such an obvious act should amount to disqualification. Yet the Speaker delayed delivering verdict for an extraordinarily long time. When the decision finally came today, the conclusion was startling: Danam Nagender continues to be treated as a BRS MLA!!!!!! Congress has insulted, made a mockery of Babasaheb Ambedkar ji’s Constitution,” wrote Ramchander Rao.

Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Bandi Sanjay Kumar, also found fault with the Speaker’s ruling.

“With due respect to Hon’ble Telangana Assembly Speaker Gaddam Prasad garu, a small search on the Internet would have given you a lot of evidence on defection cases. Didn’t these MLAs leave their party and join Congress? Didn’t the Chief Minister himself put the Congress ‘kanduva’ on them publicly? Didn’t Congress give B-Form to defected candidate to contest in Lok Sabha,” asked Bandi Sanjay.

The BJP leader also wanted to know if there was no evidence just because senior BJP leader and Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy won the election from Secunderabad Lok Sabha constituency.

Nagender had contested as Congress candidate from Secunderabad in 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

“If all this happened in front of the entire state… how did the defection suddenly disappear on paper? People of Telangana already feel Congress stands for Anyaya, not Nyaya. If defections are blessed instead of questioned, what message are we sending? Is this not a mockery of the Constitution? Is this not a mockery of democracy?,” asked Bandi Sanjay, who also posted a screenshot from the Election Commission of India’s website, declaring as accepted Nagender’s nomination as Congress candidate in Lok Sabha elections.

–IANS

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