HC orders disqualification of BRS MLC Dande Vithal

Hyderabad: In yet another shock for the BRS party, the High Court on Friday ordered disqualification of the party MLC Dande Vithal on the charges of forgery of signature of his opponent and got his nomination withdrawn.

BRS leader Dande Vithal was elected as the Member of Legislative Council under the Adilabad local body quota in 2022. The Congress party leader Pattireddy Rajeshwar Reddy, who was also a candidate, filed a petition in High Court alleging that the BRS leader had forged his signatures to show the returning officer that he had withdrawn his nomination. The Court which heard the petition not only disqualified him but also imposed a penalty of Rs 50,000.

BRS has been facing setbacks one after the other. Even as the party leaders are yet to forget the 48-hour ban imposed on the party chief K Chandrashekar Rao by the Election Commission, the High Court gave the verdict against MLC Dande. Another MLC of the party K Kavitha is in jail for her alleged involvement in the Delhi liquor policy scam.

Dande Vithal had four more years in the office. It is learnt that the BRS leader would appeal in the Supreme Court challenging the High Court decision. Based on the requisition of the advocates of Vithal, the High Court has suspended the judgment for four weeks.

Out of the 937 votes in the local body in Adilabad, Dande Vithal got 744 votes and the Independent candidate had polled 74 votes. The Court gave a judgment on the allegations that the nomination of the candidate was withdrawn without his notice. Giving clarification, Dande Vithal said that he would challenge the High Court verdict in the Supreme Court. He said he had no relation to the withdrawal of the candidature by the other party leaders. He said he had confidence that he would get justice in the Supreme Court.