Telangana: BRS to move SC over rising defections to Congress
Working president KT Rama Rao is consulting several legal and constitutional experts
On the back of a steady stream of BRS MLAs and MLCs jumping ship to the Congress after the regional party's electoral debacle in the Assembly and the Lok Sabha polls, the beleagured Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has decided to knock on the doors of the Supreme Court and even the President, Lok Sabha Speaker, to put an end to the ‘unlawful defections’ by lawmakers in Telangana.
The party working president KT Rama Rao, is currently in Delhi, along with former minister T Harish Rao, to consult several legal and constitutional experts on approaching the SC to seek the disqualification of the defecting elected representatives, said reports.
Further, Rao said the BRS also wanted to expose Congress’s “hypocrisy” and double standards. The party has already submitted their petitions before the Telangana assembly Speaker and the Telangana high court, seeking disqualification of the defected MLAs.
BRS to approach President
According to reports, the party, is also going to approach the President, Lok Sabha Speaker and Rajya Sabha Chairman, to prevent the Congress from encouraging the defections.
Talking to the media in Delhi, Rama Rao slammed the Congress for not fulfilling even one of the guarantees it made to the people of Telangana. Instead, the national party has poached six of their MLAs, six MLCs and one Rajya Sabha MP, he complained.
“We will approach the country’s President, Lok Sabha Speaker and Rajya Sabha Chairman to put an end to the practice,” he asserted.
Seven MLAs jump ship
Most recently, on July 7, yet another MLA, Krishna Mohan Reddy from Bandla joined the Congress. He became the seventh legislator after Pocharam Srinivas Reddy (Banswada), Danam Nagender (Khairatabad), Kadiyam Srihari (Station Ghanpur), Kale Yadaiah (Chevella), Tellam Venkat Rao (Bhadrachalam) and Sanjay Kumar (Jagtiyal) to switch loyalties.
With these defections, the BRS tally is dropping in the Telangana Assembly and has become 32 from 39, while the strength of the Congress has gone up to 71. In the Legislative Council, after a round of defections, the Congress’ strength is all set to go up to 10.
Blaming Congress
The BRS working president blamed the Congress for initiating the ‘Aayaram-Gayaram’ culture in India, and at the same time, introducing the Anti-Defection Law in 1987. And now, the Congress is encouraging defections in Telangana in complete violation of the same Anti-Defection Law, he pointed out.
“The Congress has been making tall claims with respect to being the saviour and vanguard of Constitution. Rahul Gandhi who flaunts the Constitution of India before the media and makes a huge cry over its violation by the BJP, is also responsible for its desecration,” he remarked.
The same Congress which had cried foul when the BJP had poached its MPs in Goa, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana was now welcoming BRS MLAs into the fold, he continued.
No moral grounds
Castigating the Congress for poaching members of other parties after accusing the BJP of indulging in similar practices in other states, he stated the party has no moral grounds to do what it is doing.
Rahul Gandhi had complained about how defections was affecting the Congress and even made some of his legislators in Goa take anti-defection oaths, he pointed out. And then went on to ask, "What moral ground does he have to allow his party engineer defections of our MLAs?”
Also, he spoke of the time when Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah claimed that the BJP had purchased the Congress MPs for ₹50 crore, and went on to ask what is the going rate for MPs in Telangana.
Rama Rao also reminded people that the Congress had promised to amend the Schedule 10 of the constitution to ensure automatic disqualification of elected representatives upon defection in its manifesto.
Oscar-level acting
Rama Rao also took more potshots at Rahul mocking him for his “Oscar-level acting” by holding the Constitution in Parliament, and shortly after shaking hands with BRS defected MLA Pocharam Srinivas Reddy welcoming him into the party. “What sort of hypocrisy is this?” he questioned.
When asked by reporters how after the 2018 Assembly elections, when the BRS had won 88 of the state’s 119 seats, many Congress MLAs had switched loyalties to BRS, he replied, "There is a difference between defection and merger. If two-thirds of a party wants to join another party, then defection laws do not apply. But if individual members join another party, the defection law applies. In the case of BRS leaders joining the Congress, defection laws apply.”
