Is an MLA contesting MP poll on another party’s B-Form not defection? asks Harish Rao

HYDERABAD

Ridiculing the Congress leadership for its double standards in the matter of upholding the Constitution, Deputy Floor Leader of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in Telangana Assembly, T. Harish Rao, said that going around with a copy of the statute book won’t serve any purpose.

In an open letter addressed to the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, on Friday, the BRS leader said: “The Constitution can not be defended through speeches alone. It must be upheld through actions, especially when it is politically inconvenient”.

He reminded Mr. Gandhi that Congress party’s 2024 Lok Sabha election manifesto promised to strengthen the democratic institutions and uphold the anti-defection framework to protect the people’s mandate. However, what was happened in Telangana exposed a glaring contradiction between what he (Gandhi) preached and what his party was practised where it was in power.

Taking the example of Khairatabad legislator Danam Nagender, Mr. Harish Rao said the former was elected as an MLA on the ticket of BRS and openly contested the Lok Sabha election using an official Congress B-Form issued by the Indian National Congress. “It’s not speculation, not hearsay and is a matter of public record”, he said, adding that the Telangana Assembly Speaker yet ruled that there was no evidence of defection.

If contesting an election on a Congress B-Form while being an MLA of another party was not the evidence of shifting parties, then the country deserves to know what exactly was evidence of defection under the Tenth Schedule. “Is this how the Congress party protects the Constitution? Is this the “Constitutional morality” you lecture the nation about?” Mr. Harish Rao asked.

When a legislator elected on a party’s mandate contests [as an MP] under another party’s banner and still continues as MLA without disqualification, the spirit of the Constitution is reduced to a political slogan, Mr. Harish Rao said and added: “You can not claim to defend the Constitution in Delhi while allowing your party to dilute it in Telangana”.