The Telangana High Court on Friday, September 18, disqualified Khairatabad MLA Danam Nagender under the anti-defection law, setting aside a previous order by Assembly Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar.
Nagender, who won the 2023 Assembly election from Khairatabad on a Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) ticket, was one of the 10 MLAs who allegedly switched from BRS to Congress ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections after the party came to power in Telangana with a landslide victory. He even contested the Lok Sabha election from Secunderabad constituency on a Congress ticket, but lost to BJP MP G Kishan Reddy.
A High Court bench headed by Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh ruled that Danam Nagender stands disqualified as an MLA from April 23, 2024, having contested the Secunderabad Lok Sabha election as a Congress candidate. They set aside the Speaker’s order issued on March 11, and disqualified Nagender as an MLA under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, better known as the anti-defection law.
The court pronounced the orders in two writ petitions filed by BRS MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy and BJP MLA Alleti Maheshwar Reddy.
The Telangana Speaker had previously dismissed petitions from BRS to disqualify all the MLAs who allegedly shifted loyalties to the ruling Congress.
On December 18, 2025, the Speaker had ruled that the anti-defection law does not apply to the MLAs Tellam Venkat Rao, Bandla Krishna Mohan Reddy, T Prakash Goud, Gudem Mahipal Reddy, and Arekapudi Gandhi, saying the petitioners failed to provide evidence that they had formally defected from BRS to the Congress.
Later, he also dismissed the disqualification petitions against MLAs Kale Yadaiah, Sanjay Kumar, Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, Danam Nagender, and Kadiyam Srihari.
The Speaker conducted hearings over the disqualification petitions and had ruled that there was conclusive evidence that the MLAs gave up their membership of BRS.
BRS has reportedly filed writ petitions challenging the Speaker’s decision in nine of the 10 MLA’s cases, except for Mahipal Reddy.
BRS working president KT Rama Rao welcomed the High Court’s verdict, saying the remaining MLAs would also be disqualified soon.