Hyderabad: The disqualification of MLA Danam Nagender by the Telangana high court on Friday (September 18) has set off suspense over the fate of eight other Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLAs who, like Nagender, defected to the Congress after the last assembly elections in the state.Nagender won on a BRS ticket from the Khairatabad assembly constituency in Hyderabad in the November 2023 polls but went on to contest as Congress candidate from the Secunderabad Lok Sabha seat in May 2024 while continuing to be a BRS MLA on paper.He was among ten BRS MLAs who defected to the Congress after the party formed a government in Telangana in 2023. With one of these lawmakers having returned to the BRS fold recently, the high court’s judgment disqualifying Nagender has now put the remaining eight legislators’ tenure in jeopardy.Allowing two writ petitions filed by BRS and BJP MLAs, a division bench of the high court on Friday declared Nagender disqualified as of April 23, 2024 (the day he filed his affidavit as a Congress candidate) as a member of the Telangana assembly in accordance with the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution – the anti-defection law – and Article 191(2), which disqualifies MLAs and MLCs if they are found guilty of violating the Tenth Schedule.“As a result thereof, the said seat [Khairatabad] is rendered vacant,” the division bench comprising Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice G.M. Mohiuddin ordered.The judgment has left hanging in the balance the fate of the eight BRS MLAs against whom the party has also petitioned the division bench for switching loyalties to the Congress, citing different grounds showing them to be active members of the grand old party.For example, the BRS has accused Station Ghanpur MLA Kadiyam Srihari of campaigning for his daughter, Congress candidate Kadiam Kavya, in the Lok Sabha elections from Warangal. They have also said that Banswada MLA Pocharam Srinivas Reddy holds the post of adviser on agriculture to the incumbent Congress government.The bench heard the petitions, by BRS MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy and BJP MLA A. Maheshwar Reddy, against Nagender and reserved its order on August 21. It delivered its verdict on Friday.The petitions against others – Srihari, Pocharam Srinivas, Tellam Venkat Rao (MLA for Bhadrachalam), M. Sanjay Kumar (Jagtial), Arekapudi Gandhi (Serilingampalli), T. Prakash Goud (Rajendranagar), B. Krishna Mohan Reddy (Gadwal) and Kale Yadaiah (Chevella) – are yet to be disposed of.The BRS withdrew its case against another defector, Gudem Mahipal Reddy (Patancheru), after he returned to the party.One of the defecting MLAs, who did not want to be named, told The Wire that he was not worried about the end result.Telangana speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar breached his constitutional obligations by not properly considering the facts before him, the high court said. Photo: PTI.Nagender’s disqualification has the effect of quashing the order of Telangana assembly speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar, who had in March this year dismissed for “lack of evidence” petitions seeking action against the Khairatabad MLA, which contended that Nagender attracted disqualification as he contested the Secunderabad Lok Sabha as a Congress candidate despite being a BRS MLA on paper.The BRS moved the division bench of the high court against the speaker’s order in March itself. Around the same time it also filed petitions against the other defectors.Many of these BRS MLAs have argued that they continued to be in the party and met chief minister Revanth Reddy only to seek the development of their constituencies. Meanwhile, the BJP also joined the legal battle against the defector MLAs.In its 91-page judgment, the bench on Friday invoked its powers of judicial review under Article 226 and held the speaker’s findings “unsustainable on grounds of violation of constitutional mandates and perversity”.The judges held that the speaker “committed a serious jurisdictional error” in concluding that Nagender’s conduct outside the assembly, including contesting as a Congress candidate despite being a BRS MLA on paper, did not fall within the remit of his powers under the anti-defection law. In fact, they said, Gaddam disregarded the facts placed before him “in breach of [his] constitutional obligations”.The bench also declined a plea by Nagender’s counsel to keep his disqualification in abeyance while he appeals the decision, and directed the court’s registry to communicate the verdict to the speaker’s secretary and the Election Commission.Nonetheless, Nagender filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court on Saturday (September 19), which is likely to come up for hearing on Monday. Nagender has reportedly argued in his petition that there can be no judicial review of the speaker’s decisions as they are internal to the House. The BJP and the BRS have filed a caveat so that they are kept informed of the developments in the top court.Though the BRS had targeted all ten of its 30-odd MLAs who defected to the Congress after the assembly elections, it especially pursued Nagender as his association with the Congress was glaring. It petitioned the speaker as early as March 18, 2024, when it became obvious that he would join the Congress. Within a month, the party reportedly moved the high court seeking Nagender’s disqualification.However, Nagender went on to contest the Lok Sabha election on May 13, 2024, and was declared defeated on June 4.Thereafter, disqualification petitions by the BRS against other MLAs piled up before the speaker. A single-judge bench of the high court directed the speaker’s office to fix a schedule to hear the petitions. Then, a division bench set aside the single judge’s order and directed the speaker to decide the petitions within a reasonable timeframe in November.The Supreme Court intervened in July 2025 when there was no headway and set aside the division bench’s order while directing the speaker to adjudicate the disqualification pleas within three months.On March 11 this year, the speaker dismissed the petition against Nagender, after dismissing petitions against the rest over the past few months. Within a week, the BRS and BJP approached the division bench again against the speaker’s order over Nagender.Telangana no stranger to defectionsThe defections by BRS legislators were in keeping with a trend of opposition MLAs in Telangana joining the ruling dispensation after it comes to power.After the first elections to the Telangana assembly following the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in 2014, MLAs of the Telugu Desam Party, the Congress and the YSR Congress joined the BRS (then the Telangana Rashtra Samithi or TRS), which had formed the government.As all three YSR Congress MLAs joined the TRS, there was no controversy because its entire legislature party ceased to exist. Likewise, the Telugu Desam legislature party was considered as having merged with the TRS after 12 of its 15 MLAs defected.According to one controversial interpretation of the anti-defection law, it insulates MLAs from defection if two-thirds of the elected members of a party switch over to another party, on the grounds that this amounts to the party’s merger with another outfit, thereby precluding implementation of the law.In fact, one of the TDP MLAs, Talasani Srinivas Yadav, went on to serve as minister in the TRS government.During the same term of the assembly, seven of the Congress’s 21 MLAs also joined the TRS, but this did not amount to a ‘merger’ as the two-thirds mark was not reached. The Congress legislature party leader K. Jana Reddy continued to function as the leader of opposition.In the next term of the assembly, from 2018 to 2023, as many as 12 of 18 Congress MLAs, constituting two-thirds of the legislature party, joined the TRS, which finalised the ‘merger’ of the party with the pink party. Congress legislature party leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, who is now deputy chief minister, was relieved of his post as leader of opposition. A Congress MLA, P. Sabitha Indra Reddy, was made minister in the TRS government.The Congress had then petitioned the speaker against the defections several times but to no avail.Now in the opposition, the BRS has now moved from pillar to post – knocking the doors of the speaker, the high court, the Supreme Court and again the high court – which has so far claimed one casualty, i.e. Nagender. The party’s determined bid to act against other MLAs has raised intense speculation about their future.BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao celebrated immediately after the high court judgment. “Satyameva Jayate!! BRS MLA Danam Nagender who defected to Congress got disqualified by the Hon’ble High Court today. The rest of the defectors will also meet the same fate soon,” he wrote on X.BRS MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy, who filed the case against Nagender, said the fight will continue till the other BRS MLAs who defected to the Congress are also disqualified from the House.