Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s claim that elections to the just-dissolved Telangana Assembly would be held in December this year drew flak from the Opposition parties on Friday.
The Congress and the CPI took strong objections to the Chief Minister’s claims stating that the Election Commission alone was the competent authority to make any statement about the conduct of elections. The Congress alleged that the Chief Minister’s statement on the possible election dates was indicative of “match fixing” between the BJP-led Central government and the TRS-led Telangana government.
The CPI too, on its part, termed “highly objectionable” the announcement made by the Chief Minister after the dissolution of the Assembly. CPI general secretary Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy and party’s central secretariat member K. Narayana called on Chief Election Commissioner O.P. Rawat in New Delhi on Friday and lodged a complaint against KCR’s claims.
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Objecting to the Chief Minister announcing the schedule, they said the Election Commission was a constitutional body and except for it, no one had the right to speak on its behalf. The CPI leaders complained to the EC that the Chief Minister told his party, the TRS, that he had a talk with the ECI before announcing the election schedule.
Stating that the Telangana Assembly was abruptly dissolved nine months ahead of its tenure, they wanted the ECI to take appropriate decision about the election dates independent of “Telangana Chief Minister’s directives” to keep up the dignity of the constitutional body.
Meanwhile, the ECI announced the schedule of a visit of a team of officials led by Deputy Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha to discuss poll preparedness of the State. The office of Chief Electoral Officer received a phone call from the ECI seeking information about the preparedness of the State in case of advancement of polls.
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The Commission wanted CEO Rajat Kumar to submit a report on the state of affairs on Monday so that it could be discussed in the weekly meeting of Election Commissioners slated for next Tuesday. The ECI also asked the CEO to include details regarding the number of polling stations finalised so far, the expected number of Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines, control units and electronic voting machines and other requirements such as deployment of staff for election duties and security purposes in the report. The CEO’s office published the draft of the summary revision of electoral rolls on September 1 and called for claims and objections before October 31.
Awareness programme
Meanwhile, the CEO’s office conducted an awareness programme for district collectors and other senior officials to educate them about the use of VVPATs that were being introduced for the first time in the State. The officials were told about the finer details, including the precautions that should be taken to store the machines so that the data could be stored in a fool-proof manner.