Hyderabad, March 11 – Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president K. T. Rama Rao on Wednesday termed Telangana Assembly Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar's "clean chit" to MLAs Danam Nagender and Kadiyam Srihari in the anti-defection case as an open attack on democracy.
He reacted strongly on 'X' to Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar dismissing petitions for the disqualification of Nagender and Srihari, who were elected to the Assembly on BRS tickets in 2023 but later switched to the ruling Congress party.
Rama Rao criticised the Speaker for giving Nagender a "clean chit" for contesting the Lok Sabha elections in 2024 under the Congress party's symbol, despite disrespecting the people's verdict.
The BRS leader said that the Speaker's decision would encourage defections and was a dark day in democratic history.
"This is not a judgment. It is an example of how the constitutional system is used to favour those in power. If elected positions won with the people's votes are changed for personal gain, and the Speaker gives his approval, where do democratic values stand?" he asked.
"Decisions like these erode people's trust. The people of Telangana are watching everything. They will give their answer at the right time," KTR added.
Earlier, while pronouncing the orders on the petitions for the disqualification of Kadiyam Srihari and Danam Nagender, the Speaker said that the petitioners had failed to provide evidence that the two MLAs had defected to the Congress party.
The Speaker had last week completed hearing on the petitions filed by BRS MLA Kaushik Reddy and BJP MLA Maheshwar Reddy for the disqualification of Nagender, and the petition filed by BRS MLA K. P. Vivekanand for the disqualification of Srihari.
With this, the Speaker has dismissed petitions for the disqualification of all 10 BRS MLAs who had switched to the Congress party in 2024, a few months after the Congress came to power in the state.
In December 2025, he dismissed petitions for the disqualification of five MLAs – Tellam Venkat Rao, Bandla Krishna Mohan Reddy, T. Prakash Goud, Gudem Mahipal Reddy, and Arekapudi Gandhi.
He dismissed the petitions for the disqualification of Pocharam Srinivas Reddy and Kale Yadaiah on January 15.
On February 4, the Speaker dismissed the petition for the disqualification of BRS MLA Sanjay Kumar.
In all the cases, the Speaker ruled that the petitioners had failed to provide evidence that the MLAs had defected to the Congress, making it clear that the Anti-Defection Act could not be applied.