No Khairatabad bypoll notification until pending poll plea resolved: ECI tells HC | Hyderabad News
Hyderabad: The Election Commission of India (ECI), on Thursday, informed the Telangana High Court that it would not hold a by-election in the Khairatabad Assembly constituency until a pending election petition filed by Congress leader P Vijaya Reddy is resolved.The seat fell vacant following the high court’s disqualification of MLA Danam Nagender in an order on Sept 18. Ironically Nagender, is now a Congress leader. He had won the Khairatabad seat in 2023 on a BRS ticket, then contested the Secunderabad Lok Sabha seat the next year on a Congress ticket resulting in his disqualification by the high court, which was subsequently upheld by the Supreme Court.The commission’s submission was made before a division bench comprising Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice Vakiti Ramakrishna Reddy during the hearing of a lunch motion moved by Congress leader and former GHMC corporator Vijaya Reddy who finished as the runner-up in the 2023 polls, behind Nagender.She had previously filed an election petition seeking to declare Nagender’s election null and void and recognise her as the winner. This was last listed before a single judge in July 2025.Representing the petitioner in the present petition, senior counsel Vedula Venkataramana argued that SC precedent prohibits treating a seat as a “casual vacancy” while an election petition seeking a declaration of victory remains pending. Further, citing Sections 84, 98 and 101 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, he contended that the ECI lacks the legal authority to declare or notify a by-election for the Khairatabad seat while the outcome of her legal challenge is pending.Concurring with the argument, ECI standing counsel Avinash Desai assured the court that “the seat would not be declared a casual vacancy until the election petition reaches final adjudication”.Taking note of ECI’s stance, the bench directed the Commission to submit a formal affidavit confirming that no by-election notification will be issued in the interim and adjourned the case to Oct 6.Meanwhile, after Nagender’s disqualification, Vijaya Reddy’s counsel moved an interlocutory application (IA) before the single judge requesting to have the election petition taken up and decided on a day-to-day basis so that the truth would come out and she would have the opportunity of being declared the successful candidate in the Nov 2023 polls.This will enable her to serve as MLA until the end of Dec 2028 in the interest of justice, failing which she would suffer serious loss and damage, she said in the IA.In Jan 2024 Vijaya Reddy filed the election petition alleging that Nagender had suppressed material information in his affidavit and urged the court to declare his election as illegal and set it aside.
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