India’s Supreme Court has dismissed legislator Danam Nagender’s plea against an order disqualifying him from the Telangana Legislative Assembly. The decision, delivered on Thursday, leaves in force the Telangana High Court’s ruling in a dispute over whether Nagender defected from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) to the Indian National Congress.
Nagender had represented Khairatabad for the BRS. In 2024 he contested the Secunderabad Lok Sabha election as a Congress candidate while continuing to hold his Assembly seat. The High Court disqualified him on 23 April 2024, finding that the circumstances met the constitutional rules against defection. The Supreme Court declined to set that decision aside.
The case followed petitions brought by BJP floor leader Alleti Maheshwar Reddy and BRS legislator P. Kaushik Reddy. They had asked the Assembly Speaker to disqualify Nagender. Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar dismissed the petitions on 11 March, after which the petitioners approached the High Court.
A bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant, with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana, heard Nagender’s challenge. During the proceedings, Justice Bagchi invoked the phrase Aaya Ram, Gaya Ram, phir aaya Ram?—a reference to the recurring problem of legislators switching parties. The court’s dismissal means the High Court’s disqualification order remains operative.
The ruling concerns Nagender’s eligibility to remain an MLA and does not itself resolve broader political disputes between Telangana’s parties. Any further challenge would depend on the procedural options available to the parties and subsequent court proceedings.