HYDERABAD: Barring the ruling Congress, all the major political parties like BJP, BRS, CPM and CPI opposed the unanimous elections to the local bodies in the state and insisted that “none of the above” (NOTA) option be introduced in these polls.
Given the upcoming local body elections, Telangana State Election Commission (TSEC) held a meeting with representatives of various political parties under the chairmanship of State Election Commissioner Rani Kumudini on Wednesday. The meeting was held with an aim to collect valuable suggestions and recommendations from the registered political parties on NOTA and other issues related to elections.
The Congress opposed recognising NOTA as a candidate, arguing that conducting elections in constituencies with unopposed candidates would be an unnecessary financial burden. In contrast, BRS, CPM, Jana Sena and other parties supported considering NOTA as a fictional electoral candidate, warning that unopposed elections could lead to coercion and misuse of power.
Kamalakar Rao and P Rajesh Kumar of Congress, Anthony Reddy and S Malla Reddy of BJP, Abbas Ahasan of AAP, Soma Bharat Kumar, Ch Rakesh Kumar and P Ravi Kumat of BRS, S Khaleelulah of AIMIM, D Yada Goud of TDP, N Shanker Goud and R Rajalingam of Jana Sena were among those who attended the all-party meeting.
Speaking to TNIE, Ch Rakesh Kumar of BRS said that even the unanimously elected candidates should also compete with NOTA because people should not be denied their voting right.
“The State Election Commissions of Haryana and Delhi have also decided to conduct polling considering NOTA as a fictitious candidate when more than one candidate is in the fray and if NOTA gets more votes, the election should be cancelled and re-election should be held from the nomination stage. If in this process, NOTA again gets more votes, then those votes should not be taken into consideration and the candidate who gets more votes should be declared as the winner,” he said.
Meanwhile, the BJP leaders said that they were unable to express their views on unanimous elections as there is a case pending in the Supreme Court on the matter. They said that Panchayat Raj elections should be held as per the existing rules.
Leaders of Jana Sena said that NOTA should be used even if there is only one candidate in fray. The CPM leaders, meanwhile, highlighted that the Supreme Court had already ruled in favour of conducting elections with the NOTA option.