Hyderabad: Now, the ball is in the Speaker’s court. All eyes will be on the decision of the Telangana Assembly speaker Gaddam Prasad as the hearing of the MLAs facing defection charges had concluded.

The Speaker has taken up the hearing of the case filed by the BRS party against the ten MLAs who have shifted loyalties since October 1. The hearings along with the cross examination ended on Saturday and now the leaders will have to wait till October 23. As part of the hearing, advocates cross-examined remaining two MLAs Gudem Mahipal Reddy (Patancheru) and Bandla Krishnamohan Reddy (Gadwal) on behalf of the petitioners.

It may be mentioned here that the BRS party had filed petitions seeking disqualification of the MLAs who changed parties after winning on a BRS ticket. The BRS had approached the Supreme Court. With this, the court that conducted the hearing set a deadline for the Speaker to take a decision. To this extent, Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar issued notices to 10 MLAs who changed parties. However, except for Danam Nagender and Kadiyam Srihari, the remaining eight MLAs have said that they have not changed parties. The complainants have submitted evidence against those who have not changed parties.

The Supreme Court had set a deadline for the Speaker to take a decision by October 30. It is not clear when the Speaker is going to take a decision as he would be on a foreign tour from Monday and would return on October 24.

The political leaders will be keenly looking with curiosity what decision the Speaker would be taking.