Days after Janata Dal (S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda campaigned for the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu was in Mandya Lok Sabha constituency on Monday campaigning for Mr. Gowda’s grandson K. Nikhil.
Speaking in a mix of Kannada, Telugu and English, Mr. Naidu said that southern States such as Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh had suffered under the Narendra Modi rule in the past five years in spite of people paying taxes.
Alleging that the BJP has been misusing the Election Commission of India (EC) and other constitutionally formed institutions, he underlined the need of verifying the ballot slips on Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines after the counting of votes. He added that Mr. Modi, BJP president Amit Shah and their party had misused the Reserve Bank, Enforcement Directorate, Income Tax Department and Central Bureau of Investigation as well.
“Today, democracy is in danger. We have to save the nation and save democracy. Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) are vulnerable [to manipulation] and hence, we [the Opposition parties] are demanding verification of 50% of the ballot slips of VVPATs after the counting. However, the EC is not accepting our demand,” Mr. Naidu said.
The Andhra Pradesh CM also praised Mr. Gowda for his concern to resolve farmers’ issues and his knowledge of the irrigation sector. “Mr. Gowda is the only leader after Sir M. Visvesvaraya in Karnataka who has tremendous knowledge on the irrigation sector,” he said.