(Photo in DCX)
With the Election Commission of India making serious observations over the ‘discrepancies’ in the voters’ list made available during the 2021 byelection to the Tirupati LS constituency, all the major political parties joined issue in accusing the ruling YSR Congress Party of having a tacit role.
Telugu Yuvatha, the TDP’s frontal organisation, staged a mock demonstration putting ‘votes for sale’ here on Saturday, pointing to the blatant manner in which the voters’ list had been tampered with. “The trend is true even today, especially in the Tirupati and Chandragiri Assembly constituencies, where the ruling party leaders have enrolled thousands of fake voters,” alleged A. Ravi Naidu, State general secretary of Telugu Yuvatha, who led the demonstration.
Referring to the BJP’s complaint to the ECI after the byelection, the party’s State spokesperson G. Bhanuprakash Reddy said they stood vindicated with the ECI’s remarks staying in concurrence with the objection raised by the party.
Congress leader P. Naveen Kumar Reddy condemned the police action on the outsourced computer data entry staff, leaving behind the ‘political bigwigs’.
Meanwhile, Jana Sena members staged a demonstration in front of the RDO’s office protesting against the way the politicians and officials had gone ‘hand-in-glove’ during the polls. Tirupati district convener P. Hariprasad and Assembly constituency in-charge K. Kiran Rayal demanded that the final draft, scheduled to be released on January 22, be postponed to eliminate the discrepancies beyond doubt.
