SURYAPETA: The TRS party on Tuesday won the chairman and vice-chairman posts in the Neredcharla municipality, all thanks to the ex-officio votes, leaving the TPCC chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy fuming and accusing the State Election Commission of favouring the ruling party.
Of the 15 wards in Neredcharla, the TRS and Congress won seven wards each. But with CPM as an alliance partner, the grand old party hoped to bag the chairman’s seat. The TRS, however, had other ideas. The party initially proposed Huzurnagar MLA S Saidi Reddy, Rajya Sabha member B Lingaiah Yadav and MLC B Venkateshwarlu as ex-officio members.
The Congress, on the other hand, had Nalgonda MP Uttam Kumar Reddy and Rajya Sabha member KVP Ramachandra Rao as their ex-officio members. That again tied the contest at ten votes each.
However, with State Election Commissioner Nagi Reddy permitting TRS MLC Subhash Reddy to vote as ex-officio member the pink party gained the upper hand and clinched the top post with 11 votes against Congress’ 10.
Uttam strongly opposed the decision and alleged that the SEC was supporting the TRS and accused it of including Subhash Reddy’s name against the rules. While Ch Jayababu was elected as chairman, his TRS colleague Ch Sri Latha was chosen as vice-chairman.
Upset by the development, an irate Uttam, Ramachandra Rao and other Congress ward members walked out of the meeting and later staged a ‘rasta roko’ on Neredcharla road. Police rushed to spot and shifted them to the police station. Later speaking to the media, Uttam said that the Nereducharla result is proof of scale of corruption and irregularities resorted to by TRS working president KT Rama Rao.
“The last date for submitting the names of the ex-officio members was January 25, but Subhash Reddy’s name was registered after the deadline. The Election Commission permitted him to vote against the rules. This is shows how it is supporting the TRS,” he said.
Huge irregularities took place in civic polls: N Uttam Kumar Reddy
HYDERABAD: TPCC chief and Nalgonda MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy on Tuesday revealed that he would raise the issue of how judiciary was behaving in Telangana, in the Parliament and said that he has already sought permission from the Lok Sabha Speaker for the same. Addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan, he accused TRS working president KT Rama Rao of spearheading a “large scale irregularities” in the municipal elections.
"Despite Congress party having a majority in Nereducherla municipality in Suryapet district, the TRS government and State Election Commission brazenly misused and abused power and manipulated the election of chairperson and vice-chairperson," he said, while pointing out that Congress had eight seats while TRS had only seven seats. The entire Telangana was humiliated by the manner in which the municipal elections were conducted, he said.