YSR Congress Resorting To "Bogus Vote Racket" Fearing Defeat: Chandrababu Naidu

Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief Chandrababu Naidu on Monday alleged that fearing losing power in the forthcoming assembly polls, the YSRCP government is resorting to a "bogus vote racket."

Chandrababu, who was here in a village to celebrate the Makara Sankranthi along with his family members, visited the party leader, Pulivarthi Nani, at Chandragiri who has sustained grievous injuries when he recently doused himself with kerosene in front of the local Revenue Divisional Officer's (RDO) office, demanding deletion of bogus voters.

Talking to media persons at Chandragiri, Chandrababu said that the Election Commission should take the "irregularities" in the voter lists in the Chandragiri Assembly segment as a case study. The former chief minister came down heavily on the ruling YSRCP stating that it is resorting to largescale irregularities that even the dacoits do not dare to indulge in.

Observing that generally, it is the duty of the polling officials to enroll the voters, he alleged that the YSRCP leaders are doing this in the State and are "deleting" the votes of the TDP sympathisers. "What is happening in the Chandragiri Assembly segment is certainly a case study with regard to enrollment of voters," Chandrababu remarked.

The TDP supremo said that the Election Commission has recently expressed anger at the Tirupati District Collector and the Superintendent of Police (SP) and questioned what steps they have taken to check the recurring irregularities that took place in the Lok Sabha bypolls here.

Pulivarthi Nani has been fighting for the past six months against the "deletion of the votes of the TDP sympathisers," Mr Naidu added.

"In fact, I am getting frustrated watching the activities of these people. I have never seen such kind of criminals in my lifetime as the Form-6, Form-7 and Form-8 have been utilised at will in all the 11 Assembly segments in the combined Chittoor district," Chandrababu claimed.

Claiming that in the last elections, the district had only 2.90 lakh votes, the TDP chief expressed surprise that the number of voters has gone up "so steeply to 3.08 lakh." In Thummalagunta now there are seven booths as against four last time, he added.

"I am really surprised to know that the voters enrolled fresh are of the age of 40 to 80 years and from where they have come here now," he asked. 

Also, 13,928 votes are with similar photographs while voters are enrolled in Tirupati and Chandragiri segments with the names of Sangeetha Hari and Hari Sangeetha while in the name of Sravya Duvvala and Duvvala Sravya are enrolled in Srikalahasti and Chandragiri segments, Chandrababu claimed.

In the name of Mallaguntla Mahesh voters are enrolled in Peeleru and Chandragiri segments, the TDP supremo further claimed and added that all this indicates how the officials "colluded with the ruling party leaders." Making it clear that it is the primary responsibility of the officials to see to it that there are no irregularities in the voter lists, Chandrababu said that if the officials are found responsible for such irregularities they may even be sent to jail.

Chandrababu Naidu said that the people have already decided to send the YSRCP home. "The officials should function as per the norms and if they are found violating the guidelines they will be sent to jail by the coming TDP-Jana Sena combine government," the former chief minister said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)