KTR Slams Congress Over Speaker's Defection Ruling

BRS Working President K T Rama Rao today lashed out at the Congress, and said that it had murdered democracy on the floor of the Assembly.

Reacting to the Speaker's decision on the defected MLAs, KTR said that it once again proved that Rahul Gandhi and the Congress had absolutely no respect for the nation's highest courts or the Constitution.

"Merely posing for photographs while holding a copy of the Constitution is not enough. Protecting MLAs who had openly admitted to defecting in the name of development is a clear display of double standards by Gandhi and the Congress. Rahul Gandhi will go down in history as an incompetent leader who failed to respect the very Anti-Defection Law brought in by his own father, late Rajiv Gandhi," he said.

"The Congress has been making a mockery of the Constitution at every step - from the day Revanth Reddy visited the homes of BRS MLAs to encourage defections, to the Speaker's decision today. The Speaker ruled against the defection petitions under pressure from the Congress, completely ignoring the spirit of the judgments delivered by the Supreme Court. The Speaker acted in an undemocratic and unconstitutional manner by disregarding the provisions of the Anti-Defection Law," KTR said, and affirmed that the BRS strongly opposed the decision.

The BRS working president added that the Congress was backing away from disqualifying the defectors solely out of fear of facing by-elections.

"The Telangana society clearly understands that the Congress is delaying action against defected MLAs only because it is terrified of public backlash," he said, and added that there was a surge in anti-incumbency sentiment across villages against Revanth Reddy's two-year rule, especially ahead of the upcoming panchayat elections.