VIJAYAWADA: Taking strong exception to the decision of the Election Commission of India (ECI) to conduct re-polling at five polling booths in Chandragiri Assembly Constituency of Chittoor district, the TDP on Thursday alleged bias in the functioning of the poll body.
“A trend has been observed that the ECI responds with lightning speed to the complaints filed by the BJP and its friendly parties while the complaints by the Opposition parties are being ignored or taken up at a snail’s pace,” the party observed.
In protest against the decision to hold re-polling, TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu shot off a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner and other election commissioners in New Delhi. He also sent a copy of the letter to CEO Gopala Krishna Dwivedi.
A TDP delegation submitted a memorandum in the ECI office and another delegation submitted a representation to the Additional Chief Electoral Officer Sujatha Sharma in the State Secretariat accusing the ECI of favouring the YSRC by acting on its petitions and ignoring those filed by the TDP.
Meanwhile, the TDP leaders led by minister N Amarnath Reddy staged a protest in Tirupati against the EC decision.
In his letter, Naidu said, “As expressed earlier, I am writing this letter to strongly oppose the partial one-sided and undemocratic motivated actions of the ECI. What is more disturbing and painful is that the ECI set aside all the complaints made by the TDP. Acting on the complaints made by the YSRC candidate, the EC has decided to conduct re-poll in certain polling stations. However, it did not respond to the complaints of TDP seeking re-polling in the polling booths 166,172,173,192,193,194, 310,311,323 (complaint dated April 12),” Naidu said.
“It is the job of the ECI to scrutinise all the complaints and take a decision on the polling booths where re-polling needs to be conducted. It is unprecedented that the ECI has now decided to conduct re-polling in five polling stations, that too after the completion of the process of re-polling in some other polling stations on May 6. Normally re-polling decision needs to be taken once and for all and is completed on a single day. The actions of ECI are unjustified, partisan and violate its own guidelines and conventions,’’ Naidu averred.