Telangana HC disqualifies Danam Nagender as MLA over defection to Congress

The Telangana High Court on Friday disqualified Khairatabad MLA Danam Nagender under the anti-defection law, setting aside Assembly Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar’s decision rejecting petitions seeking action against the legislator after he moved from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) to the Congress.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice G M Mohiuddin allowed appeals filed by BRS MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy and BJP Legislature Party leader Alleti Maheshwar Reddy against the Speaker’s order. The court declared Nagender disqualified and held that the Khairatabad Assembly seat stood vacant. The Registry was also directed to communicate the order to the Speaker and the Election Commission.

Congress candidature decisive

Nagender had won the Khairatabad constituency on a BRS ticket in the 2023 Telangana Assembly election. Months later, he switched political allegiance and went on to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha election from Secunderabad as a Congress candidate while continuing to hold his Assembly seat.

His candidature on a Congress ticket became central to the disqualification proceedings. Nagender eventually lost the Secunderabad parliamentary contest but continued as the Khairatabad MLA.

The petitioners argued that by accepting the Congress nomination and contesting an election as its candidate, Nagender had effectively given up his membership of the party on whose ticket he had entered the Assembly. They maintained that this attracted the provisions of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, which deals with disqualification of legislators on grounds of defection.

The High Court held that Nagender stood disqualified with effect from April 23, 2024, when he filed his nomination to contest the Secunderabad Lok Sabha constituency on a Congress ticket.

Speaker’s order overturned

The legal battle had earlier reached the Supreme Court amid complaints over delays in deciding disqualification petitions involving BRS legislators accused of switching sides. In July 2025, the Supreme Court directed the Telangana Assembly Speaker to decide the pending pleas within a stipulated period.

Following hearings, the Speaker rejected the petitions against Nagender on March 11 this year, concluding that the material before him was insufficient to establish defection in law. That finding was subsequently challenged before the High Court by Kaushik Reddy and Maheshwar Reddy.

During arguments, the petitioners maintained that Nagender’s decision to formally contest an election for another political party went beyond mere political association and constituted voluntarily giving up membership of the BRS for the purposes of the anti-defection law.

Nagender’s side had contested the allegations, arguing that he had not formally resigned from the BRS and that participation in political activities or other material relied upon by the petitioners could not by itself establish defection.

Khairatabad seat vacant

Friday’s ruling reverses the Speaker’s finding and results in Nagender losing the Assembly seat he won in 2023. The declaration that the Khairatabad constituency is vacant also clears the way for the electoral process required to fill the vacancy, subject to any further legal proceedings arising from the verdict.

The judgment assumes wider significance because Nagender is among several BRS legislators who faced defection allegations after the Congress came to power in Telangana following the 2023 Assembly election. Disqualification proceedings involving other legislators have also generated a prolonged legal and political battle over the application of the Tenth Schedule and the Speaker’s role in deciding such petitions.