VIJAYAWADA: Accusing the ruling YSRC of resorting to malpractices and irregularities in the by-election to Tirupati parliamentary constituency, TDP supremo and Leader of the Opposition N Chandrababu Naidu has demanded a repoll in the Tirupati Assembly segment. He also sought to know what the election observers and micro observers deployed by the Central Election Commission were doing when thousands of YSRC henchmen from other parts of Chittoor and Kadapa district were voting fraudulently.
TDP candidate Panabaka Lakshmi and TDP and BJP leaders caught hundreds of the fraudulent voters standing in queues holding fake ID cards, but there was no action, he alleged. Addressing a virtual press conference and in a series of letters addressed to the Chief Election Commissioner on Saturday, Naidu alleged that the YSRC has brought thousands of outsiders in order to cast fake votes for absentees/shifted/dead voters.
“Further, they voted in the name of existing voters with fake ID cards. Ironically, many of the fake voters and impersonators were unable to tell their names, their father’s name or spouse’s name or their address. Thousands of YSRC henchmen have been brought to the parliamentary constituency in hundreds of private/school/college buses with mala-fide intention to capture booths, rig elections, vote by impersonation, cast fake votes and instigate violence,’’ he alleged.
There was no response from the local election authorities in spite of numerous complaints to the Election Commission with video and photographic evidence, he said. Officials on election duty and police have not acted promptly and they, in turn, cooperated with the impersonators and fake voters belonging to the YSRC, he alleged.
