In the first two hours of polling, incidents of YSRCP activists allegedly accosting TDP and BJP booth agents were reported, which later subsided.
Accusing the election authorities of turning a blind eye to attempts of impersonation, the Opposition parties got down to action and started identifying suspicious voters in the queue lines and exposed them on camera by going live on social media. CWC member and Congress candidate Chinta Mohan accused the ruling party of having “imported” fake voters from neighbouring constituencies for impersonation. He identified a handful of such voters and seized ‘doctored’ EPIC cards from their possession.
Similarly, BJP candidate and former bureaucrat K. Ratna Prabha expressed shock at the ‘official apathy’ towards what she called gross violation of democratic norms. “Officials and staff are clearly afraid of taking action,” she told the media after reaching the Tirupati West police station to get her party agents released.
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The party’s spokesperson Samanchi Srinivas also produced before the media the fake identity cards supposedly meant to be used to impersonate non-resident voters.
The party’s senior leader K. Santha Reddy went on camera chasing away non-locals pretending to be voters in her locality. Similarly, CPI(M) central committee member V Srinivasa Rao accused the ruling party of resorting to malpractice and criticised the election authorities for remaining indifferent.
A TDP team led by constituency in-charge G. Narasimha Yadav and former MLA M. Sugunamma accosted a bus full of passengers, who they alleged were fake voters ‘imported’ by the ruling party.
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Brushing aside the allegations, Panchayat Raj Minister P. Ramachandra Reddy said the YSRCP clearly had an edge and did not need to stoop to such levels. He flayed TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu for resorting to spreading canards to hush up his party’s failure.