Hyderabad: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President & MP N. Uttam Kumar Reddy has alleged that the ruling TRS party was smothering the democracy to win the MLC elections from Nizamabad Local Bodies Constituency
He was addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan on Monday, along with TPCC Working President & MP A. Revanth Reddy and ex-Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir.
Uttam said that Telangana was expected to emerge as a model State in upholding democratic values. However, the Kalvakuntla family murdered democracy after coming to power in 2014. He alleged that Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao has turned politics into a dirty trade by indulging in bulk purchase of elected representatives of opposition parties. He said KCR has repeatedly ridiculed the democratic process of elections by turning elected representatives into commodities who could be purchased for a price. “CM KCR and his family are earning huge illegal wealth through corruption and commission in various projects and utilize the same money to purchase elected representatives of other parties,” he alleged.
Glimpses from today's Dubbaka Assembly bypoll preparatory meeting held at Indira Bhavan. pic.twitter.com/X7H8RjNL9m
— Uttam Kumar Reddy (@UttamTPCC) October 4, 2020
The TPCC Chief said that all democratic norms were thrown to the winds in the elections for Nizamabad Local Bodies MLC seat. He said TRS lacked the strength to win the MLC seat from Nizamabad Local Bodies constituency. But after fielding his daughter K. Kavitha as a TRS candidate, CM KCR is engineering mass defection of MPTCs, ZPTCs, Councillors, and Corporators belonging to other opposition parties into TRS. “Those local bodies’ representatives were elected by the people who voted against TRS. However, by making them join TRS, KCR is insulting the people’s verdict. KCR has no respect for people’s choice, democracy or the Constitution of India. People of Nizamabad had rejected Kavitha in the last Lok Sabha election. Therefore, he is now insulting people by making elected representatives of other parties defect to TRS to make his daughter a Member of Legislative Council through illegal, unethical, and backdoor methods,” he alleged.
Reddy said that the Congress party has lodged a complaint with Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora demanding disqualification of Kavitha as a candidate. He said that the ruling TRS party leaders were not only violating the Model Code of Conduct, but they were also violating the Covid-19 guidelines by organizing massive meetings. He said that the Congress party always believed in ethics and morals and it never violated the law even if it had to lose an election.
The TPCC Chief said that the candidate for Dubbak Assembly by-elections would be announced on Tuesday.
Speaking on the issue, Revanth Reddy said that the Election Commission of India should immediately act on the complaints lodged by the Congress party regarding violation of MCC in the Nizamabad MLC polls. He alleged that the TRS party has kept the defected MPTCs, ZPTCs, Councillors, and Corporators in various resorts. He demanded that the ECI send Observers to check the poll irregularities by the ruling TRS and take stern action.
Meanwhile, Shabbir Ali said that MLCs Ramulu Naik and Bhupathi Reddy were disqualified when they supported the Congress party in the last elections. However, the ECI did not show the same promptness when elected representatives of opposition parties defected to the TRS. As per the Panchayat Raj Act, a person elected on the party symbol cannot defect to any other party until the end of his/her term. Defection automatically leads to disqualification. But this rule is not being applied in Nizamabad MLC elections where local body representatives of other parties are openly joining the TRS. He expressed regret that the Election Commission was not taken despite the Congress party furnishing clear evidence of defections on multiple occasions. He alleged that the defected leaders have been kept in various resorts in and around Hyderabad.
