Early polls cost MLAs Rs 7.5 lakh salary & perks

Hyderabad: Of the 119 MLAs in the previous Telangana state Assembly, around 38 have lost Rs 22.5 lakh each as salary because of the elections having been held early. The remaining MLAs have lost Rs 7.5 lakh each. 

Each MLA gets Rs 2.5 lakh per month as salary (honorarium), including several allowances. The Telangana Assembly elections should have been held around April-May 2019, according to the schedule. But Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao dissolved the Assembly on September 6, 2018, nine months before its due date. From the day the house is dissolved, MLAs do not get any salary or allowance. 

In the dissolved Assembly, 39 MLAs lost nine months’ salary because they were denied tickets by their respective parties or were defeated in the elections. 
The MLAs in the dissolved assembly who were re-elected to the assembly in 2018 have lost about three months’ salary. Among the MLAs who lost nine months of salary, a majority are from the Telangana Rashtra Samiti. Some of them joined other political parties and contested but lost. For example, Ms Konda Surekha and Ms Badiga Sobha were denied tickets by the TRS. Ms Konda Surekha joined the Congress and Ms Badiga Sobha joined the BJP. Both contested and lost. CPI-M MLA in the dissolved house, Mr Sunnam Rajaiah, also lost nine months’ salary and other allowances. 

A total of 21 MLAs from the TRS, and 12 from the Congress, including defected MLAs in the dissolved House, lost the elections. From the BJP, five MLAs including defected MLAs in the dissolved House lost the elections. 

Those who were elected will get salaries and other allowances from the day they were decl-ared elected, irrespective of taking the oath.