TTDP to seek disqualification of defected members

The Telangana TDP has in principle decided to file a petition in the High Court seeking disqualification of the MLAs who switched loyalty to the ruling TRS.

The party is not prepared to buy the argument of the defected MLAs that they have the required strength to seek merger of the legislature party into the TRS legislature party. The resignations, according to TTDP working president A. Revanth Reddy, are staggered and action was pending against six of the MLAs who switched loyalty in the last one-and-a-half years.

“The six MLAs have defected from the parent party and a complaint seeking their disqualification is pending with the Speaker. The party had suspended them a long time ago and they are not the members of the TDP anymore. How can these members come together now and claim they have sufficient strength to seek merger?” Mr. Revanth Reddy said in a chat with

The Hindu .

He questioned the veracity of the defected legislators’ claim that they could seek merger in line with Para 4 of the X Schedule of the Constitution. “The Para 4 of the X Schedule speaks about the party as a whole. It will not apply to associated wings of the party like the legislature party individually,” he said, adding the TDP would approach the court on Monday seeking legal remedy for the issue.

Moreover, the TDP had filed repeated complaints with the Speaker and had also approached the High Court and the Supreme Court earlier seeking disqualification of the defected members. “There was trial on the petitions in the court and a decision by the Speaker on the petition filed quoting relevant provisions of the Anti-Defection Law is pending,” he said.

He asserted that the Legislative Assembly was not competent to take a decision on the merger of the two parties as their activities extended beyond the legislature.

The TDP would also file petitions urging the court to nullify the decision of the Council Chairman in including the defected TDP MLCs in the TRS list.