VIJAYAWADA: Apprehending that the ruling TDP may create law and problem during counting of votes on May 23, the Opposition YSRC has appealed to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to deploy additional Central forces in the State. It also demanded action against Chittoor District Collector and Rapthadu Returning Officer for their alleged support to the TDP during elections.
Speaking to newsmen after submitting a representation to the ECI in New Delhi on Saturday, YSRC national general secretary and Rajya Sabha member V Vijayasai Reddy along with Mekapati Raja Mohan Reddy, accused the TDP of planning to create law and order problem at places where the results are against it. “We have urged the ECI to deploy additional forces at all the counting centres to thwart any untoward incident. We have also taken the duplicity of voting by some students whose names were not rounded off in the original voter list despite casting their vote, to the notice of the EC,” Vijayasai Reddy said.
The YSRC delegation said they made a strong appeal to the ECI to restrain Chittoor District Collector Pradyumna and also the Returning Officer of Rapthadu in Anantapur district from taking part in the election duty on the counting day as they ‘behaved’ like TDP activists in polls.
On the controversy over repoll in five centres in Chandragiri Assembly constituency, Vijayasai Reddy said sitting MLA and YSRC candidate Chevireddy Bhaskar Reddy lodged a complaint on April 12 about irregularities during polling, but the District Collector had influenced the Returning Officer not to consider it.
“We submitted a strong evidence to the ECI to show that a single person pressed the EVM button in the polling centres while Dalits were forcibly being sent out after marking indelible ink. The same rigging methodology was adopted by the TDP in 2014 elections as well,” the YSRC MP alleged and said repoll was ordered only after the CCTV footage was examined by the ECI.
YSRC leaders V Prabhakar Reddy, U Venkateswarlu, Butta Renuka, A Srinivas and P Ravindra Babu were also part of the party delegation.
Alla apprehends trouble
Sitting Mangalagiri MLA and YSRC candidate Alla Ramakrishna Reddy called on CEO Gopal Krishna Dwivedi at the IGC in Velagapudi on Saturday and appealed to him to deploy additional forces at the counting centre as the ruling TDP might create trouble. He apprehended that Chief Minister who ‘threatened’ the EC, might intimidate the counting staff of Mangalagiri constituency to get election results in favour of his son Nara Lokesh.