Hyderabad: In a blatant misuse of the anti-defection law, 38 MLAs and 18 MLCs from Opposition parties joined the BRS between 2014 and 2023 but none was disqualified. Indeed, some were rewarded with ministerial berths.
Though MLAs and MLCs did not join in groups to meet the stipulated norm of two-thirds legislators changing party in one-go to seek merger with the party, they were joining to escape disqualification, 'mergers' of opposition parties with the BRS were done both in the Legislative Assembly and Council.
Talasani Srinivas Yadav, who defected from the Telugu Desam, was inducted as a Cabinet minister in 2015 even while he was still with the TD, highlighting how anti-defection was brazenly violated during the previous BRS government.
The anti-defection law was implemented only when the issue boomeranged and legislators from the BRS defected to the Congress.
Three BRS MLCs — K. Yadav Reddy, R. Bhoopathi Reddy and Sabavat Ramulu — were disqualified for defecting to the Congress in January 2019 within days of the BRS filing petitions with the Council chairman K. Swamy Goud.
But no opposition MLA or MLC was disqualified for joining the BRS and disqualification petitions filed by opposition parties were kept pending until mergers with the BRS happened or the tenure of legislators had ended.
After losing power in Telangana, the BRS is raising a hue and cry over violation of the anti-defection law after at least seven of its MLAs and an equal number of MLCs defected to the Congress in the past seven months.
BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao claimed that the party had strictly followed the Constitution and never encouraged defections. He claimed that the BRS allowed the merger of opposition MLAs, only if two-thirds of them supported the move, which is constitutionally valid.
An analysis of the mergers engineered by the BRS exposes the real story.
During the BRS government’s second term from 2018 December to December 2023, the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) was merged with the BRSLP in June 2019 on the grounds that 12 Congress MLAs out of its total of 18, representing two-thirds, had joined the BRS in one go. But, the reality was that these Congress MLAs joined the BRS one after the other from March to June 2019.
The Congress filed disqualification petitions against every defected MLA whenever but no action was taken. When the defection number touched 12 and met the two-third majority norm, they were merged with the BRS.
Congress MLAs Athram Sakku and Rega Kantha Rao joined the BRS on March 5, 2019, Banoth Haripriya on March 10, P. Sabitha Indra Reddy and Kandala Upender Reddy on March 14, Devireddy Sudheeer Reddy on March 16, Beeram Harshavardhan Reddy and Chirumarthi Lingaiah on March 20, Jajala Surender on March 28, Vanama Venkateshwara Rao on April 7 and Gandra Venkata Ramana Reddy on April 23.
All these Congress MLAs were taken into the BRS fold by party president and then chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao. When ‘Pilot’ Rohith Reddy joined the BRS on June 6, meeting the two-thirds mark, the CLP was merged with the BRSLP on June 6.
During the BRS government’s first-term from June 2014 to December 2018, seven Congress MLAs out of 21 joined the BRS. There was no merger with the BRS then as it did not meet the two-thirds majority norm. The Congress filed disqualification petitions against them. But the then speaker S. Madhusudhana Chary sat on the petitions for four years and allowed the defected MLAs to complete their term.
Of the seven defected MLAs, four joined the BRS in 2014, including G. Vittal Reddy in August, Koram Kanakaiah in September and Kale Yadaiah and Redya Naik (both in November) while Puvvada Ajay and Chittem Rammohan Reddy joined in April 2016 and N. Bhaskar Rao in June 2016
The same pattern was followed for the Telugu Desam Legislative Party’s ‘merger’ with the BRS in March 2016 on the ground that 12 out of 15 its MLAs had joined the BRS in one go. But the reality is that these 12 MLAs defected to BRS one after the other from October 2014 to March 2016.
The most bizarre was the case of Talasani Srinivas Yadav, who joined the TRS on October 29, 2014 and Chandrasekhar Rao inducted him into his Cabinet in December of that year. Yadav continued as a minister for more than a year as a TD MLA till March 2016, when the TDLP was merged with the BRS and Yadav officially became a BRS MLA.
TD MLAs Talasani Srinivas Yadav and Teegala Krishna Reddy joined the BRS on October 29, 2014, Challa Dharma Reddy joined on November 9, 2014, Manchireddy Kishan Reddy on April 22, 2015, G. Sayanna on December 4, 2015, Madhavaram Krishna Rao on May 30, 2015, K.P. Vivekananda on February 9, 2016, S. Rajender Reddy on February 16, 2016, T. Prakash Goud and Errabelli Dayakar Rao on February 10, 2016 and finally when Maganti Gopinath joined on March 10, 2016, the TDLP was merged with the BRS by treating all these 12 MLAs as having joined in one-go.
The merger of TDLP with BRS for the second time in April 2021 was also done in a similar manner. The TD won just two seats in the December 2023 Assembly polls. Of them, Sandra Venkata Veeraiah joined the BRS on March 2, 2019. The only other remaining TDP MLA Mecha Nageshwar Rao, joined the BRS on April 7 2021, and the very day TD was merged with BRS.
The anti-defection law was grossly violated even in the Legislative Council. The CLP was merged with BRSLP on December 22, 2018 after four Congress MLCs joined the BRS. However, not all these four had joined in one-go. M.S. Prabhakar joined the BRS in December 2015 and K. Damodar Reddy in June 2018.
Their disqualification petitions were kept pending. Finally, when the other two MLCs T. Santosh Kumar and Akula Lalitha joined the BRS on December 22, 2018, the CLP was merged with the BRSLP.
