All the major Opposition parties have appealed to the Election Commission of India to take steps to avoid “misuse” of power by the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi in the run up to the forthcoming elections to the Legislative Assembly.
Representatives of the Telugu Desam Party, Bharatiya Janata Party, Communist Party of India, CPI (Marxist) and the Bahujan Samaj Party wanted the election authority to keep a check on the “rampant use of money power and liquor” by the ruling party to induce voters.
Delegations of these parties called on the team of Election Commission headed by the Chief Election Commissioner O.P. Rawat which arrived in the city on Monday.
BJP national executive member Nallu Indrasena Reddy said the EC had been requested to keep a check on the bogus votes in several constituencies under the Hyderabad Lok Sabha. Though representations were submitted to the Chief Electoral Officer’s office in the past, there was no action so far in eliminating the bogus votes. “The ruling party is indulging in distribution of money in several ways. There is need to keep a stringent check on ambulances, ATM vans and other vehicles to check the movement of cash to different places,” he said.
The BJP delegation wanted the Commission to inquire into the charges on officials who were adopting “partisan” attitude and appropriate measures should be initiated to check these instances. CCTV cameras should be deployed in all the sensitive areas while the EC should initiate steps to ensure that portal for registration of voters functioned properly.
CPI State secretary Chada Venkat Reddy said there was need to initiate action against officials responsible for enrolment of bogus voters on a large scale. Vigilance cells should be put in place in all the constituency headquarters to ensure that there was no “misuse” of official machinery.
The election authority should also take steps to keep special watch on the constituencies where the ruling TRS had allegedly positioned huge amounts of money to lure voters, he said adding the CEC had assured to positively look into the representation submitted by the CPI.
CPI (M) senior leader Nandyala Narsimha Reddy stressed the need for setting up polling stations in thandas which had been converted to Gram Panchayats in the recent days.
In addition, the election authority should take steps to ensure that single widnow permission was granted to the political parties which were taking up motor/cycle rallies.
“We are made to run from pillar to post for organising the rallies as we need to obtain permission from different departments,” he said.
TDP Polit Bureau member Ravula Chandrasekhar Reddy alleged that the caretaker government was adopting “undemocratic methods” to target the leaders of the Opposition parties as was evident from its actions like phone-tapping.
He recalled the representation submitted to the CEO on the presence of bogus voters in some constituencies in the city like Malakpet and said the “mistakes” in the voters’ lists became more profound after the revised lists were announced.
