Tirupati: Rigging allegations, house arrests mar Town Bank polls

Tirupati: Amid serious allegations of rigging and house arrests of several TDP leaders, the Tirupati Cooperative Town Bank election were held on Wednesday. The elections for the 100 plus-year-old bank assumes significance as it has 1.20 lakh shareholders (members) with a turnover of Rs 350-400 crores. The elections were held at SGS Arts College in the city to elect 12 directors among whom one will become the chairman. Both ruling YSRCP and opposition TDP fielded their panels in the elections and an intensive campaign was carried out. The polling day started with detention of several TDP leaders immediately after the commencement of polling at 7 am and they were sent to different police stations. Senior leaders including former MLA M Suguna and Tirupati parliamentary president G Narasimha Yadav were house arrested hours before the polling began.

Following this, TDP leaders alleged large scale rigging in the elections and demanded the Election Officer P Ravi Kumar and SP P Parameswar Reddy to answer to the shareholders. They said that the ruling party was in the fear of defeat and indulged in large scale irregularities. To make the election one-sided and to rig without any hurdles, they ensured the arrests of TDP leaders for lame reasons.

When TDP leaders including Narsimha Yadav along with party men reached the polling centre for staging dharna, police prevented him citing 144 section was in vogue. Later, addressing the media at her house, former MLA M Suguna said YSRCP leaders acted in an 'undemocratic' way and resorted to large scale rigging.

She accused the police of trying to foist SC, ST cases against their arrested leaders to frame them in non-bailable cases. She revealed that the party leaders including Pulugoru Murali, Ramana, Sridhar Varma, JB Srinivasulu and others were arrested by the police and sent to various police stations.

Meanwhile, the CPI leaders including state secretariat members P Harinatha Reddy and A Rama Naidu condemned the house arrest of TDP leaders and said YSRCP leaders have been denting the democracy.

Speaking to media persons at the polling station, the polling officer P Ravi Kumar said 41,383 voters out of 57,250 (72.3 %) were polled in the election. He admitted that they received a complaint from TDP on alleged irregularities. He said the result will be announced by Thursday evening.