Telangana elections: Vanteru Pratap Reddy petition hearing refused

Vanteru, in his petition, alleged that TRS chief KCR, his opponent at Gajwel, had misused the entire State machinery with an aim to defeat him and indulged in all sorts of electoral violations.

Hyderabad High Court (File photo)

HYDERABAD:  A division bench of the Hyderabad High Court on Monday refused to hear urgently the petition filed by Vanteru Pratap Reddy, Congress candidate contesting from Gajwel Assembly segment, seeking direction to the election commission to count the votes manually from the slips obtained from VVPATs in addition to EVMs to ensure accuracy and transparency.

READ | Count votes with VVPAT slips in Gajwel: Vanteru Pratap Reddy to EC

Vanteru, in his petition, alleged that TRS chief KCR, his opponent at Gajwel, had misused the entire State machinery with an aim to defeat him and indulged in all sorts of electoral violations. On Monday, petitioner’s counsel Jandhyala Ravi Shankar made a mention before the bench with a plea to hear the petition urgently. 

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When the petitioner’s counsel alleged that KCR possessed two votes, the bench said that one of them might have been removed but not reflected in the records. The bench refused to consider the plea. The matter is expected to come up for hearing on Tuesday.The bench also refused the plea of another counsel seeking to hear urgently on the issue of alleged rigging in Karwan segment.