Speaker must act against defectors, say Kaushik Reddy, Vivekananda

The petitioners and BRS MLAs Padi Kaushik Reddy and KP Vivekananda urged Speaker Gaddam Prasad to act against the defectors immediately.

Hyderabad: In the wake of the Telangana High Court’s orders for action against MLAs who defected from the BRS to the Congress, the petitioners and BRS MLAs Padi Kaushik Reddy and KP Vivekananda urged Speaker Gaddam Prasad to act against the defectors immediately. They wanted the Speaker to respect the court’s decision and uphold the rule of law.

Speaking to mediapersons at Telangana Bhavan here on Monday, Kaushik Reddy criticised the Congress for its doubled standards on defections, pointing out how the party disqualified four MLAs in Himachal Pradesh for supporting the BJP, while protecting its MLAs in Karnataka. He questioned Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s silence on the defections in Telangana, despite his claims to safeguard constitutional values.

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He stated that by-elections in the constituencies of the defected MLAs are inevitable, adding that the BRS is fully geared up to contest and win.

Reacting to the verdict, Vivekananda called it a moral victory for BRS and urged the Speaker to disqualify the defected MLAs before the court intervened again. He insisted that the Speaker should act independently, without any pressure from the Chief Minister, and protect the dignity of the Assembly. “The High Court judgment is historic and will set a standard for all Assemblies,” he stated.