The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Election procession leads to jams again

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Saturday, May 10, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Election procession leads to jams again

HYDERABAD: With Friday being the auspicious day, several prominent personalities took to the road to file their respective nomination papers for the forthcoming bypolls to the three Assembly constituencies in the city. Commuters were put to severe inconvenience with traffic jams on all procession routes.

The procession taken by Congress candidate for the Musheerabad Assembly constituency, T. Manemma, was a good example of that.

The traffic trouble started in the very beginning when she came to the Sitaramanjeneyaswamy temple in Adikmet to offer prayers accompanied by Secunderabad MP Anjan Kumar Yadav, Minister for B.C. Welfare M. Mukesh and Congress city chief D. Nagender.

Overzealous police closed the Jamai Osmania all of a sudden with scores of Congress leaders parking their Safaris, Boleros and Innovas indiscriminately on the road. For those rushing to offices it became a nightmarish experience as traffic was diverted into already clogged narrow lanes. “Why should they cause so much hardship to us? It’s a shame that it is happening in the presence of senior party leaders,” observed Rajender, a teacher.

He wondered if the EC was taking note of all this as the conduct code was in place. The good teacher would have wanted the EC to record the entire procession if he would have known that all through the route, commuters had a hard time with repeated jams.

The cavalcade preceded by a scooters rally was passed through areas of Ramnagar, Bakaram, Musheerabad, Basheerbagh and on to the election returning officer’s office located in the municipal circle office at Abids. Inside, the RO’s office, several party activists were asked to move out as they exceeded the permitted number.

But, still 20 persons including Ms. Manemma went inside and four sets of nomination papers were filed. Election officials later explained that five persons can be allowed for each set of papers!

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Andhra Pradesh