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Congress knocks on EC door against wily TRS
Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president N Uttam Kumar Reddy has demanded that the Election Commission of India (ECI) ensure conduct of free and fair by-election in Palair Assembly Constituency in Khammam district.
A team led by the TPCC chief Uttam Kumar Reddy urges ECI to ensure free polling in Palair; seeks deployment of Central forces
- CEC urged to use ballot papers or Voters Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) along with the EVMs
- KCR accused of indulging in the demolition of pillars of democracy
New Delhi: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president N Uttam Kumar Reddy has demanded that the Election Commission of India (ECI) ensure conduct of free and fair by-election in Palair Assembly Constituency in Khammam district.
A delegation of Congress leaders, led by Uttam Kumar Reddy, called on Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Nasim Zaidi here on Tuesday and requested him to withdraw permission granted to the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) for conducting their annual plenary session and public meeting in Khammam on Wednesday so as to provide equal level playing field to all parties.
He also urged the CEC to use ballot papers or Voters Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) along with the EVMs. “Democracy in Telangana is in peril as Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao is indulging in demolishing the pillars of democracy and scuttling the spirit of the Constitution. The TRS stooped to such an ugly level to wipe-off the Opposition parties through undemocratic and anti-constitutional methods.
The TRS government had influenced the State Election Commission to remove statutory provisions, the NOTA option, from EVMs during the GHMC elections that were held recently. Our appeals in this regard to ECI and State Election Commission were unheard and none paid attention to rectify such a gross violation of statute,” Uttam Kumar Reddy said in his petition.
The TPCC chief alleged that elections in the Telangana State had become a farce with the ruling party misusing the government machinery, including bureaucrats, government employees and the police. The TRS was found distributing liquor and various forms of gifts. It also even resorted to threatening the voters and resorted to rigging.
“The police in Telangana have become puppets in the hands of the TRS government and allowed the government to use their official vehicles to transport and distribute money during the elections. Despite making several complaints on these incidents, the government machinery that was responsible to conduct free and fair elections in Telangana failed totally, resulting in anarchic and undemocratic situation,” he said.
Fearing that the situation might deteriorate further if EC failed to take proactive measures immediately, he demanded deployment of Central forces for smooth conduct of elections.
Quoting the Supreme Court judgment to press for using VVPAT, the TPCC chief said despite representations to the ECI, the Centre and Chief Election Officer, Telangana, no attempt was made to arrange VVPATs along with the EVMs during the by-elections for Warangal Parliament Constituency and Narayankhed Assembly Constituency. Uttam Kumar Reddy was accompanied by MPs G Sukhender Reddy, V Hanumanth Rao, Nandi Yellaiah, Palvai Govardhan Reddy, Renuka Chowdhary and Rapolu Anand Bhaskar and others.
