Nine defected BRS MLAs, who are facing disqualification notices from the Speaker, held an emergency meeting with Chief Minister Revanth Reddy on Sunday evening to discuss what to do. While 10 MLAs from BRS joined the Congress party, all of them except former minister and MLA Kadiyam Srihari met the CM.
Chief Minister has reportedly assured the MLAs. After the meeting, they told media persons that they have not defected from the party and are continuing to remain in BRS. They said that they have taken the problems in the constituencies to the Chief Minister’s attention and requested that these be resolved expeditiously.
When asked whether they obtained party leadership permission to meet the Chief Minister, they countered by asking whether permission should also be obtained to meet the Chief Minister on public issues? Two MLAs have already given explanations on the notices given by the Speaker.
The rest of them intend to take a decision after discussing with the CM. The rest of them have decided to reply on this occasion like the MLAs who gave a written reply to the Speaker in the same vein. It may be recalled when the present BRS Rajya Sabha member KR Suresh Reddy was the Speaker of the combined Andhra Pradesh, he continued the hearing of the disqualification petitions of the MLAs for a long time.
He disqualified only three MLAs a day before the election notification was issued and concluded that the rest of the MLAs had not defected from the party. The Chief Minister has also advised them to seek advice from legal experts on this matter.
Since 10 of their party MLAs have joined the Congress, the BRS leaders have approached the Supreme Court seeking disqualification under the Prevention of Defection Act of the Constitution. Ten MLAs joined the Congress separately, not all at once.
While the notices from Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar’s office were to be answered by the 2nd of this month, the MLAs said that this deadline was not enough for them and asked for another 10 days. They thought that the replies to the notices from the Speaker should be submitted on different dates.
After the hearing with the Speaker begins, the MLAs’ lawyer should seek time, as the hearing on behalf of the ten MLAs will begin in different months, so there is a possibility of delay in taking a final decision so soon.
