GUNTUR: Malfunctioning of EVMs at a handful of polling booths in the district have left the voters and politicians equally jittery, with the former, at some places forced to leave the booths after long wait without casting their votes, and the latter staging protest with the administration about the impediment to holding the democratic process of electing governments, on Thursday.
The sitting MLA of Mangalagiri and YSRCP candidate, Alla Ramakrishna Reddy, staged dharna protesting non-functioning of EVMs at Mangalagiri, Ponnur, Prathipadu and Vinukonda Assembly constituencies of Guntur district on Thursday.
He staged the protest at CK School in Mangalagiri, demanding immediate rectification of the faulty EVMs in the constituency. On the other hand Mangalagiri’s TDP candidate Nara Lokesh visited Duggirala, Emani, Chintalapudi, Panumulee, Navuluru, Mangalagiri polling booths and interacted with the public. He expressed doubts on proper functioning of EVMs in the strong hold of TDP and placed his demand of taking up immediate repair of the faulty EVMs in his constituency, with the poll officials.
Ramakrishna Reddy alleged malfunctioning of 40 EVMs in several booths of Tadepalli, Mangalagiri and Duggirala polling booths, as he contacted the collector and district election officer K Sasidhar over phone and informed about the malfunctioning EVMs. He also said that officials delayed the proceedings by failing to immediately replace the damaged machines. He also alleged that hundreds of voters left their respective venues after three to four hours’ waiting in the queue to exercise their franchise in the polling booths and this was due to the fault of the poll officials.
He lodged a complaint with the Election Commission demanding necessary action and wanted polling to continue after stipulated hours, till the last man standing in the queue cast his/her vote. He further sought repolling in the polling booths where proceedings got delayed due to malfunctioning of EVMs. The TDP leaders and workers had allegedly led an attack on YSRC activists at Tadepalli on Thursday evening in the presence of police, sources said.
Prathipadu’s YSRC candidate Mekathoti Sucharitha also demanded repolling at the 50 polling booths out of 282 in the Assembly constituency, because of non-functioning of EVMs. She further alleged that the TDP leaders forcibly dragged out the agents of YSRC in front of presiding officers and police, hence she demanded repoll. She alleged that the TDP government was trying to decrease the percentage of voter turnout by using non-functioning EVMs and this with the support of the polling officials in Prathipadu.
Voters of Vinukonda expressed their displeasure against the officials due to delaying of the poll process caused by the non-functioning of EVMs in the polling booths of Angaluru, Udicherla, Epuru, Pamidipadu, Andugula Kothapalem and Palukuru.
The YSRC activists carried out an attack against APDLDA chairman Lagadapati Venkata Rao, who allegedly tried to enter the polling booth of Gandhinagaram of Vinukonda. Sources said that TDP and YSRC leaders had secretly agreed to poll 50 percent of votes each but the TDP exercised their franchise and tried to stop polling to avoid YSRC voters from exercising their franchise and hence they carried out an attack on TDP activists at Gollapalem booth