Congress Seeks Disqualification Of 7 MLAs For Violating Whip

The Telangana Congress has demanded the disqualification of seven MLAs who violated the party whip and voted in favour of the TRS candidates in the elections for three Rajya Sabha seats from Telangana held today.

Speaking to media persons at the Assembly media point, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President N Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the MLAs - Kale Yadaiah, Redya Naik, Bhaskar Rao, Ch Rammohan Reddy, Koram Kanakaiah, Vithal Reddy and Ajay Kumar - who were elected on Congress tickets in the 2014 elections, had voted in favour of the TRS candidates in violation of the whip issued by the Congress Legislature Party which directed them to vote for the party's official candidate P Balram Naik.

Therefore, he said, all seven MLAs were liable to be disqualified immediately.

He said that the defecting MLAs had shown their voting slip to the Congress polling agent and ex-MLA Kantha Rao, and that Rao had immediately lodged a written complaint with the Returning Officer and Legislature Secretary V Narasimha Charyulu asking him to reject those seven votes and take action against the MLAs for violating the whip.

He said that the Returning Officer however first refused to accept the complaint. Later, he apparently spoke to Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao or Speaker S Madhusudhana Chary and accepted the complaint. However, the RO did not give any acknowledgement for the complaint lodged by the Congress, Reddy said.

The TPCC chief accused KCR of indulging in cheap politics. He said that the TRS had no strength in the Assembly to field a third candidate. It had only 63 MLAs while each candidate was required to get at least 30 votes, which meant the TRS needed 90 MLAs voting for its candidates to win all three seats. However, KCR had lured the legislators of other parties to get their support for the third seat which his party did not deserve, Reddy said.

Reddy also said that the Congress had fielded Balram Naik, an ST candidate, for the elections as tribals from Telangana had no representation in the Upper House. He said that to ensure the victory of a Girijan candidate, CLP leader Jana Reddy had issued a three-line whip asking all party MLAs to vote in favour of the party's official candidate. The whip was directly delivered to all MLAs, and it was also pasted at the residences of MLAs who had defected to the TRS, Reddy said.

The TPCC chief said that the issue had been referred to the Election Commission of India, the Chief Electoral Officer and the Returning Officer, with the Congress seeking disqualification of all the seven defecting MLAs and also cancellation of the election of the third TRS candidate. Citing a judgment of the Supreme Court, he said that the election of a candidate as a Rajya Sabha member would be declared null and void if he/she got votes in violation of party whips.

He said that Jana Reddy had also submitted a representation to the Speaker seeking disqualification of the defected MLAs.