Hyderabad, May 3 : In a setback to the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), the Telangana High Court on Friday set aside the election of its MLC Dande Vithal.

Pronouncing the order on a petition filed by Congress leader P. Rajeshwar Reddy, the court also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on the BRS leader.

Vithal was elected to the Legislative Council from Adilabad Local Authorities' constituency in 2022. Rajeshwar Reddy, who was then in BRS, was aspiring for the party ticket. As he was denied a ticket, he had filed his nomination as an independent candidate. Later, the returning officer declared that Rajeshwar Reddy had withdrawn his nomination.

There were allegations that Vithal forged Rajeshwar Reddy's signature to withdraw the nomination. After Vithal was declared elected, Rajeshwar Reddy filed a petition challenging his election.

Claiming that he had not withdrawn his nomination and that his signature was forged, the Congress leader had pleaded to the court to declare Vithal's election invalid.

The court had sent the petitioner's signatures and also those on the withdrawal application to the Central Forensic Laboratory. After taking into account the Advocate Commissioner's report and witnesses' examination and after hearing the arguments from both sides, the court reserved the order.

The court on Friday pronounced the order, setting aside Vithal's election. However, at the request of Vithal's counsel, it suspended implementation of the order for four weeks to enable him to file an appeal.

Meanwhile, the MLC said he would challenge the order in the Supreme Court. This comes as another setback for the BRS ahead of the May 13 Lok Sabha elections.

The BRS, which had been ruling Telangana since its formation in 2014, lost power to Congress in the elections held in November last year. The party has since lost many key leaders including six MPs, three MLAs and a couple of MLCs to the Congress or the BJP.

/IANS