Telangana BJP calls speaker’s verdict ‘dark day in democracy’

Hyderabad: Reacting to the assembly speaker's decision on the disqualification petitions against BRS MLAs, the Telangana BJP on Wednesday said the verdict was contrary to the spirit of democracy.In separate statements, Union ministers G Kishan Reddy and Bandi Sanjay, BJP state president N Ramchander, and NV Subash said that it was well known that a person elected from one party had campaigned and contested as a candidate of another party. Even then, declaring that this does not constitute defection and delivering such a verdict is nothing but an insult to democracy. Despite such clear records, it was surprising that the speaker stated that this does not amount to defection. They said the judgment also disrespected the mandate given by the people. Terming it a dark day in democracy, Kishan Reddy said the Congress was following the footsteps of the BRS in engineering defections. "I would like to ask Rahul Gandhi: it was your father, Rajiv Gandhi, who brought in the anti-defection law. At that time, a constitutional amendment was made to implement this law. But today, when the same law is clearly being violated, what does it indicate when the speaker under your party's govt delivers such a verdict?" Ramchander Rao said."The verdict given today is not only an insult to democracy, but it also appears to be an insult to the Constitution and the mandate of the people," he said, adding that it is a classic case of political convenience overriding constitutional morality.