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Member of the Telangana Legislative Assembly, Danam Nagender, elected from the 60-Khairatabad Assembly Constituency, has been disqualified as an MLA, according to the official gazette issued by the state.
According to an official notification issued in The Telangana Gazette (Part-II Extraordinary, No. 858-A) by Rendla Thirupathi, Secretary to Legislature (Legislative Assembly), the action has been taken in pursuance of the High Court for the State of Telangana judgement dated September 18, 2026, in W.P. Nos. 8409 and 8647 of 2026. The notification (C.No.210/Legn./2026) states that Sri Danam Nagender stands disqualified under Paragraph 2(1)(a) of the Tenth Schedule read with Article 191(2) of the Constitution of India. Consequently, the 60-Khairatabad Assembly Constituency seat has been declared vacant with effect from April 23, 2024. Earlier on Thursday, the Supreme Court upheld the disqualification of Telangana MLA Danam Nagender, rejecting his plea against the Telangana High Court order which held that he had incurred disqualification by contesting the 2024 Lok Sabha election on a Congress ticket while being a BRS MLA. A bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana dismissed Nagender's challenge to the September 18 High Court judgment and upheld its direction declaring the Khairatabad Assembly seat vacant.. The Court's hearing centred on whether Nagender's subsequent attempt to return to BRS as an MLA could undo the consequences of his alleged defection to Congress and allow him to continue as an MLA. Nagender was among 10 BRS MLAs who were alleged to have defected to the Congress after the BRS lost the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. While the other nine were alleged to have met Congress leaders and Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, Nagender formally contested the Lok Sabha election from Secunderabad on a Congress ticket. He lost the Lok Sabha election but sought to continue as an MLA from Khairatabad, which he had won on a BRS ticket in the 2023 State Assembly polls. It was this formal contesting of the Lok Sabha election as a Congress candidate, while holding the BRS Assembly seat, that formed the basis for the High Court's disqualification order. Nagender, however, maintained before the Supreme Court that he had never left the BRS and relied on his subsequent return to the party. The issue brought the Court to the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, which provides for disqualification of legislators on grounds including voluntarily giving up membership of a political party, as well as voting or abstaining from voting contrary to the party's direction without prior permission. (ANI)
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