ECI directs to declare DK Aruna as winner from Gadwal in 2018 assembly elections

Hyderabad (Telangana) [India]: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has instructed the State Election Commission, State Chief Secretary and Assembly secretary to officially announce DK Aruna, BJP National Vice President, as the Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for the Gadwal Assembly Constituency as directed by the Telangana High court.

This direction was communicated through a letter sent to the Chief Electoral Officer of the state requesting that this matter be published in the upcoming official gazette.

“I am directed to refer to Hon’ble High Court of Telangana’s order dated 24th August, 2023 in the EP No. 4/2019 and to forward herewith Notification No. 82/TEL-LA/SOU3/4 of 2019/2023 dated 4th September 2023 (enclosed), issued by the Election Commission under Section 106(b) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 and to request that necessary arrangements may kindly be made for its publication in the next issue of the State Gazette,” the order issued by Under Secretary Sanjay Kumar read.

Earlier on Friday, BJP National Vice President DK Aruna, along with MLA Raghunandan Rao and former MLC Ramchander Rao, reached the Telangana Assembly to submit the judgement copy of the High Court which declared her as MLA of Gadwal constituency.

DK Aruna handed over the judgment copy to the Legislative Joint Secretary after speaking to the Legislative Secretary on the phone.

“We had filed a petition in the Telangana High Court against the BRS candidate in Gadwal constituency. The High Court gave a judgement in my favour on August 24. I have come to the Assembly today to submit the judgment copy to the Assembly Speaker.

I even tried to contact him on the phone but couldn’t reach him. The Assembly Secretary comes to his office at 10:30 a.m. every day, but today he did not come. We contacted him on the phone, and he said that he was having some meetings.

After talking to him, we gave the High Court judgement copy to the Joint Secretary. We have requested that the Assembly Speaker take a decision on the High Court judgment.

We are expecting that the Speaker will take a decision on it immediately and implement the High Court judgement,” the BJP National Vice President said speaking to media.

The Telangana High Court had earlier disqualified BRS MLA Krishna Mohan Reddy as MLA for submitting a false affidavit in the 2018 Assembly elections.

Declaring the election of Krishna Mohan as ‘void’, Justice T Vinod Kumar said Aruna should be treated as an MLA.