Post date: May 04, 2011 7:3:17 AM
YSR Congress Party leaders who met Chief Electoral Officer Bhanwar Lal at the Secretariat on Tuesday alleged that the motto of the ruling Congress party and the Telugu Desam Party was to create unrest, law and order problems in the entire Kadapa district on the day of election with an ulterior motive to bring down the voting percentage.
'This is one of their joint strategies to corner YSR Congress candidate Y S Jaganmohan Reddy who was confident in winning the Kadapa seat,' party leader Shivkumar told the CEO.
The CEO was requested to take steps to ensure peaceful polling on May 8. YSR Congress leader Shivkumar expressed misgivings that the ruling party would resort to malpractices under the cover of police force and urged Mr Bhanwar Lal to take steps so that impartial polling was organized.
Referring to a recent incident, Mr Shivkumar further said that in the recent past, when the Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu made certain derogatory remarks against Mr YS Jaganmohan Reddy, the people had condemned those remarks. He defended his party by saying that the TDP functionaries threatened the same people with dire consequences.
The YSR Congress leader added that it was Mr Naidu who brought people with criminal record but at the end of the day the followers of Mr Jaganmohan Reddy were rounded up by the police.
As the media was forecasting a victory for Mr Jaganmohan Reddy, the Congress and the TDP were trying to create unrest under the cover of police to negate the chances of the former, Mr Shivkumar said. It was assumed that if majority of state police was deployed in Kadapa, there was scope for ruling party to influence the police to their advantage.
The state police deployment in Kadapa in place of Central forces was an ulterior motive to enhance the chances of Congress candidate for Kadapa seat D L Ravindra Reddy, Mr Shivkumar opined.
The Congress adopted this method in view of the CEO making arrangements for deploying Central forces with the help of ECI, the YSR Congress leader added. Briefing media persons later, Mr Shivkumar demanded that impartial, free and fair elections be held under the supervision of Central observers.