Former DCC president and defeated Congress candidate in Nizamabad (Urban) constituency Taher Bin Hamdan said that in democracy defeats and victories are common and he and his party always respect the public mandate.

“Whether we have won elections or been defeated, we have always been with the people and will also fight on public issues in future also. We, as the Opposition, will always exert pressure on the ruling party to implement its promises made to people,” he said adding that it was the responsibility of officials to act as per the guidelines of the Election Commission of India.

He alleged that the polling authorities conducted the polling without removing the votes polled in the mock polling and therefore they need to count the slips in the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trails to tally the votes in the EVMs. “Our PCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy will take the decision in moving the court on the issue,” he said.

District Congress Committee president Kesa Venu and party leaders A. Raji Reddy, M. Sudhakar Rao and Javed Akram were also present.