YSR Congress Party leader and former Minister Dadi Veerabhadra Rao has appealed to the High Court to restrain State Election Commissioner (SEC) Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar from issuing any policy-related guidelines without prior permission of the court.
Speaking to the media at Anakapalle on Monday, Mr. Veerabhadra Rao has alleged that the SEC was issuing irresponsible orders by succumbing to vested political interests.
His orders directing the District Collectors to seize the phones of the Ward Volunteers make one wonder whether he had lost his mental balance, Mr. Veerabhadra Rao said. A watch was being kept on the 2.60 lakh volunteers as though they were thieves. The SEC could say after a few days that volunteers should not be given voting rights, he ridiculed.
The welfare programmes being implemented, under the biometric system, would come to a standstill, if the phones of the volunteers were taken away, Mr. Veerabhadra Rao said.
The services of volunteers were being appreciated by national agencies as they were not government employees but working for honorarium, he said. The SEC seems to have forgotten the guidelines applicable to government employees were not applicable to volunteers, the YSRCP leader added.
The SEC has issued directions that Volunteers should not be involved in the distribution of voter slips. He may also issue direction later that government employees should not be allowed to distribute the voter slips, the YSRCP leader said.
Mr. Veerabhadra Rao said that by issuing guidelines in violation of the law from time to time, the SEC was preventing the District Collectors from doing their duties. He alleged that Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president N. Chandrababu Naidu was behind the SEC in taking all these actions. He said that during the tenure of NTR and YSR, the ruling party had secured only 55% and 65% seats in the panchayat polls.
Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy had created a record of sorts by getting 80% seats, he said. The YSRCP-backed candidates had won even in Kuppam but Mr. Naidu indulging in cheap tricks instead of analysing reasons for the debacle of his party, Mr. Veerabhadra Rao alleged. He said that Mr. Naidu would lose as an MLA in Kuppam in the next elections, if he continued with his cheap gimmicks.
