Tadepalli (Andhra Pradesh) [India], October 23 : Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and YSRCP president YS Jagan Mohan Reddy lambasted the coalition government for its indifference towards the Supreme Court directives and continuing its "mockery of democracy" in the local body elections and demanded the appointment of an amicus curiae to supervise the elections, besides deploying central forces and CCTV coverage of the election process.
Speaking to the media here on Friday, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy said the Chandrababu government is not honouring the apex court directive and is going ahead with the anarchy in the local body elections, continuing its attacks on YSRCP candidates, snatching of ballot papers, police taking sides and the basic structure of democracy being threatened, drawing towards a constitutional crisis.
The script in the ZPTC and MPTC nominations is no different, and YSRCP candidates, including women, were attacked, threatened, and nomination papers were snatched and torn away, he said and released a book titled ‘Pachamookala Dadulu’ (attacks by yellow mobs), which is a compilation of pictorial evidence of the attacks. The QR code of the book would be made available to all those who want to safeguard democracy and will also be submitted to the Courts.
We have been reporting all incidents to the concerned officials and will also move Courts as democracy is at stake with the prevailing anarchy and TDP is rigging the nominations even by filing papers on behalf of YSRCP to add up to the number and mislead the Courts. They have also forged the signatures of our candidates and announced the withdrawal of nomination.
In the prevailing anarchy and democracy being mocked consistently, the Court should order the appointment of an amicus curiae to supervise the elections, besides deployment of central forces, video recording of the election process and providing protection to all contesting candidates.
When elections are being held on a party basis, and when we released the list of our Party candidates, where is the necessity for not allowing anyone to file nomination papers? he asked, adding that the SEC has been undermining the SC directives and has cherry-picked a few centres to allow re-nominations. We complained that nominations were obstructed in 19 municipalities while the SEC has considered a handful of wards in Tirupati, Kadapa, Rajampeta and Mydukur.
In Tirupati, the SEC has permitted renomination in only 18 wards, while in Kadapa it allowed renomination in only 11 of the total 66 wards and in Rajampet it also allowed renomination in only 11 wards.
The government has been playing all the tricks to keep away the opposition from the fray by rejecting nominations during scrutiny and resorting to all kinds of malpractices. He lauded the efforts of Party cadre who stood against the tide to save democracy and said in the coming days all erring officials will have to bear the consequences.
Listing out the attacks on party candidates and leaders, YS Jagan said, MP YS Avinash Reddy was arrested from the Party Office in Kadapa, while former Deputy Chief Minister Narayana Swamy was vandalised in Chittoor.
Attacks on ZPTC and MPTC candidates were reported from Gorantla, Dharmavaram, V. Kota, Chittoor, GD Nellore, Tadimarri, Kanigiri, Dachepalli, Punganur, Jammalamadugu, among other places. Nominations were manipulated at other places.
We have reported the bias of officials to the SEC, but no action was taken, which shows that Chandrababu is pulling the strings, as he is afraid of the results, as he failed to fulfil his poll promises.
We have conducted local body elections despite adverse conditions of Covid and a hostile SEC and people voted for us with a decisive mandate as we have rolled out the welfare programme and reached out to the people effectively.