VIJAYAWADA: Alleging irregularities in the election process of Nellore Municipal Corporation (NMC) and Kuppam and Darsi municipalities, TDP supremo and Leader of the Opposition N Chandrababu Naidu on Monday, November 8, 2021, appealed to State Election Commissioner (SEC) Nilam Sawhney to order a probe into “corrupt practices” and hold the elections in abeyance.
On Monday, Naidu spoke to the SEC over phone and complained that even though the deadline for withdrawal of nominations was over, the list of contesting candidates was yet to come out.
“There has been an undue delay in releasing the final list of candidates. This is an attempt to remove TDP candidates through forged signatures, foul play and forced withdrawals,’’ Naidu alleged and urged the SEC to put the elections in abeyance wherever the final list of contesting candidates was not displayed in time and take up an enquiry to punish the officers responsible for the same.
Earlier in the day, Naidu, while addressing a virtual press conference, demanded that the SEC put the elections for the NMC in abeyance and cancel the election process if the officials caused inordinate delay in releasing the final list of candidates .
The TDP chief said there was a conspiracy to use forged signatures to announce voluntary withdrawal of opponents of the ruling YSRC. Some unscrupulous officials were conniving with the YSRC leaders.
Some election officials were in a hurry to give unanimous declaration forms in 8 wards while the final lists were not yet published, he alleged. Naidu alleged that the election authorities of the NMC announced unanimous election of candidates for wards 7, 8,12, 20, 24, 37, 38, and 40 on the basis of the manipulated list of candidates.