Government Chief Whip Gandra Venkata Ramana Reddy today submitted a petition to state Chief Electoral Officer Bhanwar Lal, requesting the Election Commission to reject nominations of 16 YSR Congress candidates as they were disqualified from the Assembly in March under the Anti-Defection Act.
The CEO, however, clarified the 16 MLAs were disqualified by the state Assembly Speaker, who in his order on March 2 had noted that they "ceases to be a member of the House".
"However, as per law this cannot be construed as a bar on them to get elected to the House. As such, there can be no bar on their contesting the election," Lal said.