A delegation of the BJP and the Jana Sena Party (JSP), comprising Somu Veerraju, Nadendla Manohar, Kanna Lakshminarayana and Kandula Durgesh, submitted a memorandum to Andhra Pradesh Governor Biswa Bhusan Harichandan on Thursday, and requested him to issueinstructions for the conduct of gram panchayat elections in a free and fair manner.
The leaders alleged that the large-scale violence that was witnessed during the process of elections for the municipalities, ZPTCs and MPTCs in 2019, and the attacks on candidates and coercive measures taken by the ruling party leaders at that time, had resulted in an unprecedented spike in unanimous elections in favour of the YSRCP.
These incidents created a doubt that the present elections might also be marred by violence and electoral malpractices against the backdrop of the spat between the government and the State Election Commissioner (SEC), the memorandum said.
They told the Governor that there had been attacks on temples and desecration of idols, but the government had so far not succeeded in nabbing the culprits.
YSRCP slams Naidu
Meanwhile, YSRCP official spokesperson and legislator Ambati Rambabu on Thursday accused TDP national president N. Chandrababu Naidu of trying to turn the non-party gram panchayat elections into a party-based exercise.
He asked why State Election Commissioner N. Ramesh Kumar was dithering over taking action against the opposition leader for releasing a manifesto.
“Mr. Ramesh Kumar has not been working in the spirit of the Constitution.Even if Mr. Naidu pairs up with Mr. Ramesh Kumar, the TDP cannot be saved from sinking,” Mr. Rambabu told presspersons at the party central office at Tadepalli.
Stating that unanimous elections existed in the country, Mr. Rambabu questioned whether it wasmentioned anywhere in the Constitution that there should be no unanimous elections in the local body polls. He further accused the SEC of dancing to Mr. Naidu’s tune and terrorising government officials by exercising his powers.
