Danam Nagendra Confident of Winning Khairatabad By-Election Following Supreme Court Ruling
Danam Nagendra expresses confidence in winning the Khairatabad by-election after a Supreme Court ruling on his eligibility.
Hyderabad, September 24 (Daily Kiran) : Danam Nagendra, a former legislator, expressed his optimism on Thursday about winning the upcoming by-election in Khairatabad. This comes after the Supreme Court upheld a ruling that dismissed his petition challenging a Telangana High Court decision declaring him ineligible under the anti-defection law.
Speaking to the media, Nagendra reflected on the potential for such a ruling during his campaign for the Secunderabad Lok Sabha seat as a Congress candidate in the 2024 elections. He was elected to the Khairatabad Assembly seat in 2023 on a Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) ticket but later switched allegiance to the ruling Congress party. He stated that there is nothing wrong with fighting a legal battle.
Nagendra is hopeful for relief under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, noting that the Supreme Court clarified he is eligible to contest elections again. He asserted that he enjoys strong support from the public and considers Khairatabad his stronghold, expressing confidence in his victory in the by-election.
The former minister mentioned that Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy will decide on his candidacy for the by-election. “I have been elected as an MLA from Khairatabad three times. I lost one by-election by just 1,600 votes,” he added.
Nagendra had filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court challenging the High Court’s decision. The High Court had annulled the Assembly Speaker’s order, which dismissed petitions seeking to declare Nagendra ineligible, and subsequently ruled that he would be disqualified as an MLA starting April 23, 2024.
However, the Supreme Court found no grounds to intervene in the High Court’s ruling. In a decision announced on September 18, the bench led by Chief Justice Apreesh Kumar Singh and Justice G.M. Mohiuddin stated that Nagendra became ineligible under Paragraph 2(1)(a) of the Tenth Schedule and Article 191(2) of the Constitution after contesting the 2024 Lok Sabha elections as a Congress candidate, despite being elected as a BRS MLA.
The High Court also declared the Khairatabad Assembly seat vacant and directed that a copy of its order be sent to the Telangana Assembly Secretary and the Election Commission of India.
This ruling stemmed from petitions filed by BJP legislative party leader Aleti Maheshwar Reddy and BRS MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy, who challenged the Speaker’s decision from March 11, 2026, which had dismissed the petitions seeking Nagendra’s disqualification.
The High Court noted that Nagendra was elected as a BRS MLA in December 2023 and subsequently filed his nomination for the Secunderabad Lok Sabha seat as a Congress candidate on April 23, 2024, campaigning against the BRS candidate.
Nagendra was among ten BRS legislators who sided with the ruling Congress in 2024. The Assembly Speaker had rejected BRS’s petitions to disqualify all ten legislators, leading to separate petitions challenging the Speaker’s decision regarding nine of them.
