The YSR Congress has criticised the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) for encouraging defections openly ahead of the indirect elections to the posts of chiefs of urban and rural local bodies.
Referring to the open invitation extended to YSRC’s municipal councillors/corporators and MPTC/ZPTC members by TDP leader Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy to defect to his party, senior leaders of YSRC M.V. Mysoora Reddy and Ambati Rambabu said the ruling party’s open encouragement to defections would boomerang on it soon.
The TDP was resorting to unethical and undemocratic practices of “horse-trading” by using its money power to wean away YSRC’s elected members in the urban and rural local bodies, they alleged. The TDP leaders’ claims that YSRC’s whip was not valid and would not cause disqualification was completely false and the defectors were bound to lose their membership as the whip was valid in every respect, they said.
“The YSRC is a recognised party and it is fully entitled to issue whip in the elections to the post of rural and urban local bodies’ chiefs scheduled in the first week of July”, Dr. Reddy and Mr. Rambabu said adding that Mr. Chandramohana Reddy’s reference to the Singam Satyanarayana Vs Election Commission case was totally irrelevant.
They clarified that the whip issued by TRS in 2001 was not valid since it was not a recognised political party then and the High Court had ruled that its whip was not valid in that case. “A party need not be a recognised party for issuing whip in case of MPs, MLAs/MLCs, but only the recognised parties can issue whip in case of urban and rural local bodies’ polls”, the YSRC leaders said.
The Election Commission had already informed the District Collectors that YSRC was entitled to issue whip in the ensuing elections, they said alleging that TDP was only trying to confuse people on the issue.
