Chandrababu Naidu demands repoll, calls on EC to take stock

VIJAYAWADA: Acc using the ruling YSRC of resorting to malpractices and irregularities in the byelection to Tirupati parliamentary constituency, TDP supremo and leader of the Opposition N Chandrababu Naidu has demanded a re -poll ing in the segment. He also sought to know what the election observers and micro observers deployed by the Central Election Commission were doing when thousands of YSRC henchmen from other parts of Chittoor and Kadapa district were voting fraudulently.

In fact, TDP candidate Panabaka Lakshmi and TDP and BJP leaders caught hundreds of fraudulent voters standing in queues holding fake ID cards, but there was no action, he alleged. While the BJP, Congress, Left parties and the TDP are trying to save democracy, the YSRC made a mockery of the same and turned the election process into a farce by misusing the official machinery, he alleged.

Addressing a virtual press conference and in a series of letters addressed to the CEC on Saturday, Naidu alleged that the YSRC has brought thousands of outsiders in order to cast fake votes for absentees/shifted/ dead voters. He also took strong exception to the presence of Panchayat Raj Minister Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy in Tirupati despite being a native of Sodum mandal in Chittoor district.