The Telangana Assembly secretary has finally served notices on the 10 dissident BRS MLAs, who had defected to Congress after the Assembly elections, following a SLP filed by the BRS in the Supreme Court against them.

Among the BRS MLAs who defected to Congress is Danam Nagender, who contested the Lok Sabha elections as a Congress candidate.

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The notice sought a written explanation from the defectors for switching parties. However, the MLAs have sought time to respond to the notices. The Supreme Court had asked the Assembly to define a reasonable period for the decision on the disqualification petition filed by the BRS before the Speaker.

The BRS had filed more than one petition against the dissident BRS MLAs in the apex court. Party MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy filed the petition against the three dissident MLAs – Danam Nagender, Kadiyam Srihari and Venkat Rao Tellam. Another writ petition was filed against the remaining seven dissident MLAs who joined Congress subsequently.

As Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar dragged his feet over the disqualification motion, the BRS moved the Supreme Court with a complaint that no action was taken over their pleas even after nine months.

The BRS pursued the case relentlessly against the dissidents, both politically and legally. Initially, it secured victory when a single bench of Telangana High Court directed the office of the Speaker to announce, within four weeks, the schedule for deciding on the applications for disqualification of the dissidents. However, the division bench of the high court had set aside the order and directed the Speaker to take a call within a reasonable time.

Upbeat over what has happened in the Supreme Court, the BRS expects defectors to eventually face disqualification. The party’s top leadership has even asked the supporters to prepare for bypolls. The only way to avoid the by-elections would be to engineer a split in the BRS Legislative Party and merge the splinter group in the Congress Legislative Party. However, the Congress High Command apparently stepped in to rein in the Telangana leadership from engineering defections from the BRS.