ANANTAPUR/VIJAYAWADA: Election to the chairperson for Tadipatri Municipality in Anantapur district on Thursday is likely to generate enough heat as both the opposition TDP and ruling YSRC are making all-out efforts to win the seat. Out of the total 36 wards, the TDP won 18, YSRC 16 and CPI and an Independent one each. Though the TDP had an edge as it also claiming to having the support of CPI and the Independent and also took them to its ‘camp’, the YSRC, which has two ex-officio votes (one MP and an MLA), is of the view that it can win the chairperson post if it gets the support of the Independent or the CPI councillor.
After former MLA and TDP leader JC Prabhakar Reddy, while taking the corporators at the camp, said four councillors from the YSRC are in touch with him, the YSRC was also forced to take its leaders to a camp.Meanwhile, speaking to mediaperons, Government Advisor Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy said the party or the government will never indulge in horse-trading to win the municipal chairman of Tadipatri and Mydukur (in Kadapa) municipalities.
Asserting that Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy asked the party leaders to go by the public mandate and not against it, he said that the results of Mydukur will be decided with a toss if the Jana Sena candidate joins hands with the TDP. In Tadipatri, the party will go with ex-officio voting, the YSRC leaders said and asserted that the party will keep fighting legally.
HC dismisses MLC’s plea
The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Wednesday dismissed the petition filed by TDP MLC G Deepak Reddy urging the court to provide him an opportunity to use the right to vote as ex-officio member in the Tadipatri municipal chairperson election.Hearing the petition, Justice DVSS Somayajulu dismissed it saying that interim orders cannot be given at this juncture. The court felt that Deepak Reddy will have the right to exercise his ex-officio vote in Rayadurg municipality, where he had the voting right while filing papers for the MLC election.
Though senior Advocate Dammalapati Srinivas argued that Deepak Reddy changed his vote to Tadipatri from Rayadurg and cast his vote in Tadipatri municipality recently, Advocate Aswini Kumar, representing the State Election Commission (SEC), said that the MLC will have the ex-officio vote in the municipality where he enrolled as voter at the time of becoming MLC.