Tenth Schedule of the Constitution

A breakaway faction of the Telangana wing of Telugu Desam Party is invoking para 4 of the Tenth Schedule in the Constitution to avoid disqualification in the House.

Para 2 of the Schedule says a member of a House belonging to any political party shall be disqualified for being a member of the House: (a) if he has voluntarily given up his membership of such political party; or (b) if he votes or abstains from voting in such House contrary to any direction issued by the political party to which he belongs or by any person, without obtaining, in either case, the prior permission has not been condoned within fifteen days from the date of such voting or abstention.

However, as per Para 3, disqualification on ground of defection shall not apply in case of split, where a member of a House makes a claim that he and any other members of his legislature party constitute the group representing a faction which has arisen as a result of a split in his original political party and such group consists of not less than one-third of the members of such legislature party.

According to Para 4 a member of a House shall not be disqualified under sub-paragraph (1) of paragraph 2 where his original political party merges with another political party and he claims that he and any other members of his original political party- (a) have become members of such other political party or, as the case may be, of a new political party formed by such merger; or (b) have not accepted the merger and opted to function as a separate group.