Although Chief Minister Revanth Reddy made serious statements in the Assembly that there will be no by-elections in the case of MLAs who defected from the party, now after Supreme Court’s involvement, it seems that it forced to axe atleast four of 10 MLAs so as to save remaining MLAs.
The Congress initially feared that by-elections would be held if the defected MLAs were declared disqualified. But the TPCC core committee has come to the preliminary decision to disqualify the MLAs who were technically caught in the MLA defection case and save the remaining MLAs. The TPCC core committee meeting was held at the CM’s residence in Jubilee Hills on Saturday.
Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, party affairs in-charge Meenakshi Natarajan, TPCC President Mahesh Kumar Goud, Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, senior ministers Uttam Kumar Reddy, Sridhar Babu, AICC spokesperson and others met. Reliable sources said that the core committee mainly discussed the issue of defected MLAs.
CM Revanth Reddy tried to dismiss the issue of defections as not a big problem, but a minister cautioned that the issue should not be taken so lightly, and that the Speaker had already conducted a legal review on the orders of the Supreme Court along with the Advocate General and senior lawyers, and the investigation process had been started only after receiving advice and suggestions from them.
It was discussed that some of the 10 MLAs who had defected to the Congress after winning on the BRS symbol were found with physical and technical evidence that they had changed parties. It is learnt that one or two ministers have made it clear that we cannot help such people in any way.
A minister has warned that there are four such MLAs and it is best to get rid of them, and that if we try to protect them, there is a risk of ruining the whole party. On this occasion, there are whispers that there is evidence related to Station Ghanpur MLA Kadiyam Srihari, Khairatabad MLA Danam Nagender, Bhadrachalam MLA Tellam Venkatrao, and Chevella MLA Kale Yadaya.
It may be recalled that Rahul Gandhi is roaming around the country holding a copy of the Constitution to protect the Constitution, and a leader has expressed concern that trying to hide the defection at a time like this will bring national disgrace.
Moreover, there are also Supreme Court orders, and if they are defied now, the Congress party will be disgraced across the country if an unexpected verdict is given by the Supreme Court again.