HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court on Thursday disposed of the petition filed by the BJP councillors of Tukkuguda municipality, after granting them liberty to approach the Election Tribunal to challenge the decision of an election officer in permitting Rajya Sabha member K Keshava Rao to cast his vote as ex-officio member for the election to chairperson and vice-chairperson posts in the said municipality.
Justice P Keshava Rao dealt with the petition filed by Rajumoni Raju and eight other BJP councillors, seeking to set aside the vote cast by the MP belonging to ruling TRS party. They alleged that the election officer conducted the poll in an unfair manner. As per Section 13 of the first schedule of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, Keshava Rao was declared elected as member of Parliament for AP, the petitioners said.
Earlier, the judge had directed the State Election Commission (SEC) to respond to the plea. The petitioner’s counsel had submitted that they had approached the HC because of a lack of Election Tribunal.
On Wednesday, senior counsel Vidya Sagar, appearing for the SEC, informed the court that an Election Tribunal was already constituted to deal with election petitions.
The judge, after hearing the arguments, disposed of the case and suggested that the petitioners to approach the Election Tribunal on the matter.