The Telangana High Court disqualified Khairatabad MLA Danam Nagender under the anti-defection law on Friday. A bench set aside the Assembly Speaker’s earlier dismissal of petitions brought by BJP floor leader Aleti Maheshwar Reddy and BRS MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy, who challenged the Speaker’s refusal to act. Nagender had won the seat in 2023 on a Bharat Rashtra Samithi ticket before switching to Congress to contest the 2024 Secunderabad Lok Sabha poll, which he lost.
The court treated the defection as attracting Tenth Schedule consequences from the date of the switch, leaving the Khairatabad seat vacant and creating a bypoll risk for Congress managers in a high-profile Hyderabad constituency. BRS working president KT Rama Rao welcomed the verdict, while Nagender’s camp indicated interest in approaching the Supreme Court after an immediate stay request was reportedly rejected.