Defection: Congress hypocrisy exposed with dual stance in Haryana, Telangana

The defection of Pocharam Srinivas Reddy at the behest of Revanth Reddy, has seen the BRS demanding Srinivas Reddy to resign and seek re-election as a Congress nominee.

Hyderabad: The double standards of the Congress on the issue of defection, which had first spilled out when Rahul Gandhi pledged automatic disqualification of defectors in the Lok Sabha poll manifesto, even as the Congress unit in Telangana poached on other parties, has once again come to the fore with the party’s moves to get a former Congress MLA disqualified in Haryana.

The Congress Haryana unit earlier this week sent a written notice to the Assembly Speaker there, seeking to announce the disqualification of Tosham MLA Kiran Choudhry, who quit the Congress and joined the BJP. The Congress notice said that as per Section 2 (1) (a) of the Tenth Schedule pertaining to disqualification on ground of defection, a member of a House belonging to any political party shall be disqualified for being a member of the House if he or she has voluntarily given up his or her membership of such political party.

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However, the party’s ideals appear to be on an entirely different plane when it comes to Telangana, where Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy himself has been going to residences of MLAS of other political parties and persuading them to join the Congress. The latest was when he visited BRS MLA and former Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy on Friday and got him to join the Congress. This was the latest in a series of such defections engineered by Congress leaders including Revanth Reddy, with the BRS already having moved the High Court to disqualify Station Ghanpur MLA Kadiyam Srihari and Khairatabad MLA Danam Nagender, who had jumped ship before the Lok Sabha polls. While Nagender went on to contest, albeit unsuccessfully, as a Congress candidate from the Secunderabad Parliamentary constituency, Srihari’s daughter Kadiyam Kavya contested and won from Warangal.

Even as the final word from the court is yet to come on the disqualification of these two senior leaders, the defection of Pocharam Srinivas Reddy at the behest of Revanth Reddy, has seen the BRS demanding Srinivas Reddy to resign and seek re-election as a Congress nominee. The BRS is likely to ask for his disqualification as well.

With the Congress move in Haryana hitting headlines, BRS working president KT Rama Rao on Saturday questioned on” X” the double standards adopted by the Congress on defection of MLAs in Haryana and Telangana. “The awkward double jeopardy and hypocrisy of the Congress at its peak…” he posted, adding that even as the Congress in Haryana wrote to the Speaker seeking disqualification of Kiran Choudhry, the Chief Minister and PCC president in Telangana was visiting BRS MLAs and begging them to join his party.

“If it happens with Congress, they cry a river & play victim. If Congress does the same in Telangana, they celebrate it as a Triumph…” he said while asking Rahul Gandhi for his response on the issue.

If it happens with Congress, they cry a river & play victim

If Congress does the same in Telangana, they celebrate it as a Triumph.

The awkward Double jeopardy & Hypocrisy of Congress at its Peak

What say @RahulGandhi Ji? https://t.co/eYZZ0fLxfd pic.twitter.com/W5t3YdsbPN

— KTR (@KTRBRS) June 22, 2024