Hyderabad: The fate of Danam Nagender, Congress candidate for the Secunderabad Lok Sabha seat, hangs in the balance. Nagender, who was the BRS legislator from Khairatabad, joined the Congress, just before Lok Sabha elections in March and was given ticket for the Secunderabad seat. However, he lost to BJP sitting member and Union minister G. Kishan Reddy.
It may be noted that the BRS had filed a disqualification petition with the Legislative Assembly Speaker against Nagender for defecting to Congress. It also filed a case in the Telangana High Court seeking his disqualification. Both are still pending.
Nagender hoped that he would win the Lok Sabha seat and subsequently resign the MLA post. This way, he could avoid the embarrassment of being disqualified. Following Tuesday’s verdict, he now faces the danger of losing his MLA seat.
BRS Huzurabad MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy filed a writ petition in the Telangana High Court in April, seeking a directive to the Speaker to disqualify Nagender for switching over to the Congress without resigning from BRS. Kaushik also submitted a disqualification petition to the speaker in March.
BRS leaders believe that he cannot escape disqualification as the speaker has to take a decision on disqualification petitions within three months as per Supreme Court directions given in January 2020.
