Deccan Chronicle

Uttam attacks KTR over polls

TPCC chief accuses SEC of not conducting municipal elections in fair manner

- IREDDY SRINIVAS REDDY | DC

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy on Tuesday accused TRS working president and minister K.T. Rama Rao of spearheadi­ng largescale irregulari­ties in the just-concluded municipal elections.

Addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan on Tuesday, Mr Reddy alleged that Telangana state was humiliated by the manner in which the elections were conducted.

He announced that he would raise the issue of how the judiciary was behaving in Telangana state in Parliament and that he had sought permission from the Lok Sabha Speaker.

He said that the Congress would take up the matter with the President and with the Chief Justice of India.

Mr Reddy said, “Despite the Congress having a majority in the Nereduchar­la municipali­ty, the TRS and the State Election Commission brazenly misused and abused power and manipulate­d the election of the chairperso­n and the vicechairp­erson.”

He said that the Congress had eight seats at Nereduchar­la and the TRS seven. When the name of Congress Rajya Sabha MP Dr K.V.P. Ramachandr­a Rao was included as ex-officio member, TRS members stalled the election process after two members were sworn in as their defeat was imminent. The election was postponed to Wednesday.

He alleged that after postponing of the election, Mr Rama Rao pressurise­d the SEC and the director of municipal administra­tion to add TRS MLC Subhash Reddy to the voters list in the morning although the deadline to include ex-officio members had ended at midnight on January 25.

“How shameless of

KTR,” Mr Reddy said and added that the Nereduchar­la municipal election symbolised the manner in which the municipal elections were held. The TPCC president said that instead of mocking the election process, the TRS should have prepared the list of municipali­ties at Chief Minister K. Chandrasek­har Rao’s farm house and announced its victory.

Mr Reddy said that the municipal elections were not conducted in a fair manner and the role played by the SEC was highly objectiona­ble.

“The results of municipal elections could not be called a people’s mandate,” he added.

UTTAM REDDY alleged that Telangana state was humiliated by the manner in which the elections were conducted

 ?? — P. ANIL KUMAR ?? TPCC chief N. Uttam Kumar Reddy being arrested and taken away in a police van in Nereducher­la on Tuesday.
— P. ANIL KUMAR TPCC chief N. Uttam Kumar Reddy being arrested and taken away in a police van in Nereducher­la on Tuesday.

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