TDP national president N. Chandrababu Naidu has written a letter to State Election Commissioner (SEC) N. Ramesh Kumar, urging him to either postpone or reissue election notification for the MPTC and ZPTC seats where the opposition party candidates are either not allowed to file their nomination papers or have been rejected with mala fide intention.

“The SEC can consider the applications or give time to submit the documents removed or changed,” Mr. Naidu said in the letter on Thursday.

Mr. Naidu alleged that several officers conspired to reject the nominations filed by the candidates of opposition parties in general, and TDP in particular, during their scrutiny.

After issuing the acknowledgement to the candidates, the officials were harassing them by saying that a paper was missing, he alleged.

The officials themselves were removing the papers, or altering the details of the candidates, and threatening the candidates saying false details had been furnished, he alleged.

Mr. Naidu further alleged that the officials on election duty were magnifying “minor and negligible aspects” in order to reject the nominations of the TDP candidates.

“At some places, proofs and evidences have been removed after submission of papers and false evidence attached. All candidates are not being invited at a time for scrutiny. They are invited individually and asked to withdraw their papers,” he said.

He also alleged that the officials were deliberately not giving the ‘no dues’ or caste certificates to the candidates, which was leading to rejection of their nominations.

In some mandals, the nominations of all the opposition candidates had been rejected to pave the way for the unanimous election of the ruling party candidates, he alleged.

Legal action sought

“The officials are violating all norms and are personally involved in sabotaging the chances of Opposition candidates. Such acts amount to forgery and cheating, and are punishable as per the Indian Penal Code,” he said, and demanded the SEC to take immediate action against the erring officials and initiate legal action against them.