What happened to Congress promise on anti-defection law: BRS

What happened to Congress promise on anti-defection law: BRS

The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has alleged that the Congress is acting in complete contrast to its manifesto wherein it had vowed to discourage defections by proposing automatic disqualification of MPs and MLAs if they join another party from the one on which they were elected.

Speaking to the media here on Saturday, senior BRS leader and former minister Singireddy Niranjan Reddy said that BRS had acted in line with the Constitution by admitting two-thirds of Congress and Telugu Desam Party MLAs in the past, unlike the Congress, whose leaders were seen going to BRS leaders’ houses and admitting them into the party.

Criticising the Congress for its talk of decimating BRS by admitting seven MLAs and seven MLCs so far, Mr. Niranjan Reddy said the grand old party of the country has only 20% representation in the Lok Sabha this time against just 10% last time. However, BRS had won 33% seats in the November 2023 elections to the State Assembly.

Mentioning Rahul Gandhi’s repeated talk of protecting the Constitution, the BRS leader sought to know why the Congress leadership was not asking the BRS MLAs and MLCs joining it to resign their elected posts and join as it had done in case of BRS Rajya Sabha member K. Keshava Rao.

Taking to a social media platform, official spokesperson of BRS Dasoju Sravan suggested the Election Commission of India to stop the exercise of conducting polls to elect representatives to the Legislature or law-making bodies and start auctioning MLA positions to the highest bidders, if political defections continue to be legitimised brazenly.

He pointed out that it was happening due to the deliberate spectatorship of the constitutional authorities and alleged that the elected representatives of BRS were apparently being blackmailed, bullied and bought, disregarding the people’s mandate.

In an open letter addressed to Mr. Gandhi, Mr. Niranjan Reddy sought to know what the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha was trying to prove by holding the Constitution (book) in one hand and encouraging defections on the other. He questioned Mr. Gandhi where the Congress promise of working for strengthening the anti-defection law had gone — that makes automatic disqualification mandatory in case of defections.