YSRCP chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy met the Andhra Pradesh SEC, alleging irregularities and intimidation in municipal poll nominations. He urged the SEC to ensure fair practices and demanded police escorts for candidates and central forces for the polls.
YSR Congress Party president and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Sunday met State Election Commissioner Anil Chandra Punetha at the State Election Commission office in Vijayawada and raised concerns about the ongoing municipal election nomination process.
Reddy alleged that irregularities, intimidation and attacks on opposition candidates had occurred during the nomination process. He also questioned whether the State Election Commission was taking adequate steps to ensure free and fair elections in the state.
Jagan Raises Concerns Over Nomination Process
Speaking after the meeting, Reddy said he had raised the same concerns before the State Election Commissioner that he had highlighted earlier. “The same issues that I had spoken about some time back were highlighted here. It was clearly explained to the SEC that if he does not permit nominations to take place, his reputation will be at stake,” Reddy said.
Reddy alleged that preventing candidates from filing nominations would make the State Election Commission (SEC) party to what he described as an undemocratic practice. “The SEC becoming a part of the undemocratic practice of stopping nominations would be recorded for the first time in history. The SEC should not be a part of it,” he said.
Demands for Free and Fair Elections
Police Escort for Candidates
Reddy urged the State Election Commission to ensure that all people seeking to file nominations were allowed to do so. He also requested that police escort candidates to nomination centres and ensure that their nomination papers were accepted.
He said, “We asked him specifically to ensure that every person who wants to file a nomination can do so. Please do escort them with the SP as an escort party and please make sure that they file the nominations.”
Reddy said that, in his view, difficulties faced by candidates while filing nominations raised concerns about the situation voters might face during polling. “In the current environment, if filing nominations itself has become so difficult, one can imagine the plight of the candidates and the people when they come to cast their votes,” Reddy said.
Deployment of Central Forces
Reddy also requested the deployment of central government and paramilitary forces for the elections. He said he would meet the Governor and urge him to request the Centre to provide paramilitary personnel.
“When somebody were to cast their vote, central government forces must be brought in. And under the supervision of the paramilitary forces, the elections are conducted. So we requested the SEC to once again speak to Delhi and mount pressure,” he said.
Live CCTV Coverage Demanded
The YSRCP president further sought live CCTV coverage of polling stations, including areas inside and outside the booths, so that, according to him, the proceedings could be viewed by the public.
“Thirdly, we’d also requested them for the CCTV footage, live CCTV footage to be aware to be made available to every common citizen before the booth and inside the booth proceedings or so that they’re visible to everybody,” he said.
Reddy also expressed apprehension that ballot boxes could be tampered with and requested live CCTV coverage of the strong rooms where the ballot boxes would be stored.
He added, “We’d also requested them that, as we fear the ballot boxes would likely be tampered with. So we requested that in the strong rooms, CCTV live footage is put in place showing the ballot boxes to everybody in the state. It’s live footage.”
He sought similar live coverage at counting centres and called for proper verification of Form 17C in the presence of CCTV cameras. He also requested live CCTV coverage of proceedings inside counting centres.
He said, “We also requested that CCTV footage should also be made available in the counting centres. 17 C forms should be properly verified with CCTV live footage covering that verification process and also the proceedings within the counting centre are also covered through live CCTV coverage.”
“These requests are not being made for the first time. Our party has been raising these issues for quite some time. I have come here to once again emphasise the need for these measures,” he added.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Asianet Newsable English staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)