Date:19/06/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/06/19/stories/2006061914770400.htm

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Congress leaders adopting coercive methods: TDP

Staff Reporter

State Election Commission urged to take action to check such practices

HYDERABAD: The Telugu Desam Party on Sunday charged Congress leaders with using every trick, including coercion of TDP candidates into withdrawing from contest, in their bid to gain supremacy in panchayat elections.

T. Devender Goud, deputy leader of TD Legislature Party, urged the State Election Commission to take action against both politicians and officials who erred under pressure from the ruling party.

He told presspersons that Nagaraj, party candidate, Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituency from Konakondla in Vajrakarur mandal (Anantapur district), was so scared that he had sought refuge at TDP headquarters here.

Mr. Nagaraj, who was present at the press conference, was being pressured to withdraw nomination by the Congress mandal leaders, he alleged.

Mr. Goud alleged that Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy's instructions to Ministers and MLAs not to take chances in the election and `threats' that Ministers would lose posts if they did not work hard for party's win was the root cause of Congress leaders' behaviour.

`MLAs being enticed'

MLAs were being enticed with Ministerial berths to motivate them to work for improving the party's electoral prospects.

`Code violation'

The TDP leader regretted that Ministers and Congress MLAs were flouting the model code of conduct.

He said in several places across the State, TDP leaders/cadre were sending reports of inclusions in the electoral rolls to the party headquarters here.

He pointed out that TDP was bringing every violation to the notice of SEC in the form of representations but the SEC was expressing helplessness to act on them.

Wild charges: Congress

The Congress on Sunday came out strongly against Telugu Desam president N. Chandrababu Naidu for levelling `wild' charges of misuse of official machinery against it to win the panchayat elections.

Congress Legislature Party secretaries E. Pratap Reddy, S. Gangaram and Konda Surekha in a press release flayed Mr. Naidu's statement that TDP leaders were prevented by the police from filing their nominations.

Terming the charges as `baseless', they said it was the TDP Government which had resorted to such tactics in the 2001 polls.

The CLP secretaries pointed out that 26 Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies were unanimously won by the Telugu Desam of which 14 alone were in Rayalaseema.

They wondered whether the party had adopted terror tactics to prevent Congress nominees from filing their papers in 2001.

Advice to TDP

They advised the Telugu Desam to realise that people were still with the Congress and would teach that party a `fitting' lesson for the fourth successive election.

At a separate press conference, APCC spokespersons P. Venkat Rao and N. Thulasi Reddy described Mr. Naidu's charges as `meaningless'.

Every allegation against the Congress was false, they contended, charging the TDP with enrolling lakhs of bogus voters. The Election Commission had deleted thousands of bogus voters just before the 2004 assembly elections, they recalled.