Speaker told to recognise YSR Congress candidate as lawmaker of Andhra Pradesh assembly

The YSR Congress appealed to Andhra Pradesh assembly speaker K Sivaprasada Rao to recognise its candidate M Tippeswamy as the lawmaker representing Madakasira constituency in Ananthapur district after the high court annulled the election of TDP MLA K Eranna.

The opposition YSR Congress on Saturday appealed to Andhra Pradesh assembly speaker K Sivaprasada Rao to recognise its candidate M Tippeswamy as the lawmaker representing the Madakasira constituency in Ananthapur district after the high court annulled the election of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MLA K Eranna.

Backed by a delegation of YSR Congress MLAs, Tippeswamy submitted a petition to AP state legislative assembly secretary M. Vijayaraju, requesting him to consider the plea.

Vijayaraju told Hindustan Times that “the ball is in the court of the speaker and I forwarded the petition to him for a final call”. The AP assembly’s term is due to expire in the next four months.

Tippeswamy lost to Eranna by a margin of 14,636 votes in the 2014 assembly elections.

AP high court judge T Sunil Chowdary on November 27 set aside the TDP MLA’s election after finding him guilty of making false claims in his election affidavit. The Supreme Court upheld his ruling on Friday, dismissing a review petition filed by Eranna. The TDP lawmaker submitted his resignation on the same day.

Tippeswamy petitioned the high court soon after the election, pointing to the false claims his rival made in the affidavit, with a plea for his disqualification. The judge found the prima facie evidences to back the allegation and observed that Eranna had deliberately provided false information in violation of the Representation of the People’s Act, 1950.

According to Tippeswamy, Eranna failed to disclose in the affidavit that he was a suspect in a criminal case registered in a Karnataka police station and had declared his wife to be homemaker although she was an employee of the state government. He obtained the information by filing a petition under the Right to Information Act.

YSR Congress, which has 67 members in the AP assembly, in October, 2017 declared that it would boycott the house, saying the party had lost confidence in the speaker because he hadn’t disqualified 23 of its MLAs who defected to the TDP.