Even as just a few hours are left for the counting of votes in the Andhra Pradesh assembly elections which would decide the fate of the ruling YSR Congress party and the opposition Telugu Desam Party, a rebel YSRCP member of state legislative council was disqualified from his membership.
State legislative council chairman Moshen Raju on Monday announced disqualification of MLC Indukuri Raghuraju invoking anti-defection law for violating the party discipline and shifted loyalties to the TDP.
Raghuraju, who had joined TDP a few weeks before the 2024 elections, following which YSRCP gave a complaint to the council chairman seeking his disqualification, was earlier served notice by the council chairman twice for seeking his explanation for changing the party.
The council chairman issued notice to the MLC and asked him to appear before him on May 16. However, he did not appear before the chairman on that day.
The chairman again posted the matter to May 31 and issued notices to the MLC. But the MLC did not turn up.
The MLC informed that he was suffering from kidney related disorder and had been admitted to a hospital in Visakhapatnam.
Yet, the council chairman did not give him another chance and straightway disqualified him from the MLC post, hours before the counting of votes in the state assembly elections.
Raghu Raju is expected to move the high court challenging the disqualification, sources said.
