Telangana High Court disqualifies Danam Nagender as Khairatabad MLA over defection

HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court on Friday disqualified Khairatabad MLA Danam Nagender under the anti-defection law, setting aside the decision of Assembly Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar that had rejected the disqualification petition against him. The verdict was delivered by a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice GM Mohiuddin.

The case centres on Nagender’s move from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) to the Congress after winning the 2023 Telangana Assembly election from Khairatabad on a BRS ticket. He subsequently contested the 2024 Lok Sabha election from Secunderabad as a Congress candidate while continuing as an MLA.

The disqualification proceedings were initiated by opposition leaders who argued that Nagender’s decision to contest a parliamentary election on a Congress ticket amounted to voluntarily giving up his membership of the BRS and attracted disqualification under Paragraph 2(1)(a) of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution.

Speaker had rejected the disqualification plea

The issue reached the Assembly Speaker after petitions were filed against Nagender and other BRS MLAs who had moved towards the ruling Congress.

The Supreme Court had directed the Telangana Speaker to decide the pending disqualification petitions. Following hearings, Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar on March 11, 2026 rejected the disqualification petition against Nagender, holding that the petitioners had not established with sufficient evidence that he had voluntarily given up membership of his original political party.

Nagender had maintained during the proceedings that he had not formally resigned from the BRS. Reports of the Speaker’s proceedings also indicated that the defence relied on his continued recognition as a BRS MLA and the absence of formal resignation.

The Speaker’s decision was subsequently challenged before the High Court by BJP Legislature Party floor leader Aleti Maheshwar Reddy and BRS MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy.

High Court challenge

The petitioners argued that Nagender’s conduct outside the Assembly could also be considered while determining whether he had voluntarily relinquished his party membership.

In March, senior advocate K. Vivek Reddy, appearing for Aleti Maheshwar Reddy, argued that Nagender had effectively given up his BRS membership when he filed his nomination and contested the Lok Sabha election as a Congress candidate. The petition specifically sought to treat April 23, 2024 — the date of filing of the nomination affidavit — as the date from which the disqualification should operate.

The argument was based on Paragraph 2(1)(a) of the Tenth Schedule, which deals with disqualification where a member voluntarily gives up membership of the political party on whose ticket the member was elected.

The petitioners also challenged the Speaker’s reasoning that the relevant conduct had to be assessed primarily in the context of the member’s conduct inside the Legislative Assembly. They relied on Supreme Court precedent concerning the scope of the anti-defection provisions and the Speaker’s role as the adjudicating authority.

Nagender’s Lok Sabha contest became the central issue

Nagender had won the Khairatabad Assembly seat in the 2023 Telangana elections as a BRS candidate. He later joined the Congress and was fielded by the party in the Secunderabad Lok Sabha constituency in the 2024 general election.

Although Nagender lost the Lok Sabha election, his candidature became central to the subsequent disqualification proceedings because he contested the election using the Congress party’s B-form while continuing to hold his Assembly seat.

The High Court challenge therefore focused not merely on his political association with the Congress, but on whether contesting an election on another party’s ticket constituted conduct amounting to voluntary relinquishment of membership of the party under which he had been elected as an MLA.

Court sets aside Speaker’s decision

The High Court has now set aside the Speaker’s decision and ordered Nagender’s disqualification. Telangana Today reported that the court held that the disqualification applies from the relevant point associated with his election as a Congress candidate, while the petition before the court had specifically sought April 23, 2024, the date of his Lok Sabha nomination, as the effective date.

The ruling has immediate constitutional and political significance for the Khairatabad Assembly constituency. The next steps will involve communication and implementation of the court’s order by the competent constitutional and electoral authorities.

The verdict also adds a significant judicial dimension to Telangana’s continuing dispute over the movement of elected BRS MLAs to the Congress and the application of the anti-defection law.

Khairatabad seat now faces a fresh electoral process

With Nagender’s disqualification, the status of the Khairatabad Assembly constituency will now have to be addressed through the constitutional and electoral process governing a vacancy in the Legislative Assembly.

A by-election would ordinarily follow a vacancy, subject to the Election Commission’s notification and the applicable constitutional and statutory procedures. The timing and conduct of any such election will therefore depend on the formal implementation of the High Court’s order and subsequent action by the competent authorities.

The verdict is also likely to have wider implications for other pending or challenged disqualification cases involving MLAs who moved from the BRS to the Congress. Several such cases have already reached the Telangana High Court after the Speaker rejected individual disqualification petitions.

For the moment, the Danam Nagender case marks a significant judicial intervention in Telangana’s anti-defection dispute, with the High Court overturning the Assembly Speaker’s decision and disqualifying a sitting MLA over conduct arising from his decision to contest the Lok Sabha election on another party’s ticket.