The Bharat Rashtra Simithi (BJP) received a major setback with six of its MLCs joining the ruling Congress party in Telangana in the early hours
The Bharat Rashtra Simithi (BJP) received a major setback with six of its MLCs joining the ruling Congress party in Telangana in the early hours of Friday (July 5) just hours after the BRS MP Keshav Rao tendered his resignation to Rajya Sabha chairman, Jagdeep Dhankar in Delhi. Members of the State Legislative Council, the upper house, Dande Vittal, Bhanu Prasad, Baswaraj Saraiah, Yegge Mallesham, MS Prabhakar and Boggarapu Dayanand joined the Congress Party in the presence of the Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy at 1 am, soon after Chief Minster returned to Hyderabad from New Delhi. The Congress party general secretary in charge of Telangana affairs, Deepadas Munshi, who was also present on the occasion, welcomed them into the party.
Already six MLAs of the BRS including the former Speaker, Pocharam Srinivas Reddy have quit the party and switched their loyalties to the Congress.
The latest round of defections was the sole contribution of the Minister for Revenue, Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, who has been spearheading the ‘operation akarsh’ launched by the Congress Party in the state. The Congress Party could improve its strength to 12 in the 40-member Council following the defection of six of the BRS MLCs.
The BRS has already moved the Court seeking disqualification of its MLAs, who had joined the Congress. The party has made a representation to the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly demanding the same. Under India’s Anti-Defection Law, the provision allowing one-third of a party’s legislators to switch loyalties without facing disqualification was removed in 2003. Now, for legislators to avoid disqualification, at least two-thirds of the members of a legislative party must agree to either merge by another party or form a new party.
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