Hyderabad: The Telangana Assembly Secretariat on Monday, September 28, notified the Khairatabad Assembly constituency seat as vacant, thus making way for the bypoll.

The notification was issued by Assembly Secretary Rendla Thirupathi, under provisions of the Tenth Schedule (anti-defection law) read with Article 191(2) of the Constitution of India.

Danam Nagender was disqualified as the contituency MLA by the Telangana High Court under the anti-defection law, setting aside the Assembly Speaker’s decision and declaring the seat vacant.

The decision was upheld by the Supreme Court.

Background

Nagender won Khairatabad in the 2023 Assembly elections on a BRS ticket. He quit and joined the Congress in March 2024 in the presence of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

He was among the 10 MLAs who switched from the BRS to the Congress after the latter came to power in the state with a landslide win, and he lost the Secunderabad Lok Sabha contest to BJP’s G Kishan Reddy.

The Supreme Court had earlier directed the Telangana Speaker to decide the pending disqualification petitions against MLAs accused of defection, following which the Speaker ruled in Nagender’s favour and the petitioners moved the High Court.

Danam Nagender is the first legislator to be disqualified from the Telangana Assembly since the state’s formation. BRS working president KT Rama Rao welcomed the High Court verdict and said the remaining MLAs who had crossed over would also be disqualified soon.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) is yet to announce the voting dates for the Khairatabad bypoll, necessitated by Nagender’s disqualification. Since by-elections are mandated to be held within six months of a seat being declared vacant, the official window places the election deadline around February-March 2027.