BRS defection case: Speaker continues hearings, focus on Pocharam, Gandhi

Hyderabad: The hearing of the BRS MLAs facing defection charges continued for the second consecutive day on Friday, during which Speaker Gaddam Prasad took up the petitions concerning MLAs Pocharam Srinivas Reddy and Arikepudi Gandhi.

On Thursday, the Speaker had taken up the petitions against two MLAs: TellamVenkatrao of Bhadrachalam Assembly constituency and M Sanjay Kumar of Jagtial. On Friday, the focus shifted to Pocharam Srinivas Reddy of Banswada Assembly constituency and Arikapudi Gandhi of Serilingampally Assembly constituency.

The first case of Pocharam Srinivas Reddy versus G Jagadish Reddy was taken up at 11 am. Former minister Jagadish Reddy had filed a petition against MLA Pocharam Srinivas Reddy. Advocates on behalf of Pocharam cross-examined Jagadish Reddy, who filed the petition.

Later in the afternoon, the Speaker took up the case of Arikapudi Gandhi versus Kalvakuntla Sanjay. Sanjay had filed a petition against Gandhi, and his advocates cross-examined Sanjay, who filed the petition. The Speaker will conduct another hearing on November 12 and 13.

Out of the ten MLAs facing charges, the hearing of four MLAs was previously completed and the Speaker has kept the case reserved for judgment. The hearing of four more MLAs was taken up in the last two days, and there will be another round of hearing with cross-examination on November 12 and 13.

Now, two MLAs remain: Kadiyam Srihari of Station Ghanpur and DanamNagender of Khairatabad, who have not yet responded to the notices issued by the Speaker.

The BRS party has approached the Supreme Court to take action against the MLAs who won on behalf of BRS in the Assembly elections and defected to the Congress party. The apex court had originally ordered the Speaker to take a decision on this issue within three months by the deadline of October 31. The Speaker’s office sought two more months’ time, which was accepted, moving the effective deadline to December 31.