Ramakrishna condemns arrest of CPI Prakasam district secretary at Pamur

Kanigiri: The CPI AP secretary K Ramakrishna condemned the arrest of their Prakasam district secretary ML Narayana for demanding the re-polling due to changes in the order of candidates in the ballot paper, in the MPTC elections at Pamur on Thursday.

Syed Moula Ali is contesting for the Pamur-2 MPTC position as the CPI candidate. He said that the RO issued a model ballot paper with his name and symbol of CPI in the first position. But, in the ballot paper used for the polling, the first position is replaced with the name and symbol of another candidate, he alleged. He brought the issue to the notice of party leaders along with the CPI district secretary ML Narayana and district officials.

Narayana and Moula Ali reached the Pamur polling booth and objected to the election officials about the misplacement of the name and symbol, as it could damage their chances of winning and demanded to conduct the repolling for the Pamur-2 MPTC position with the correct order of names and symbols of the candidates. However, the MPDO Ranga Subbarayudu rejected their request and announced that the order of candidates printed on the ballot paper is correct, as per the election commission guidelines. He said that as the CPI lost deposits in the General Elections held in 2019, the party lost its status as a National Party and cannot claim the first position, as earlier. He said that they assigned the order as per the alphabetical order of the names of the candidates.

Meanwhile, a war of words occurred between the CPI leaders and the MPDO and other officials for rejecting their plea for the repolling. Based on the formal complaint by the MPDO and officials, the police arrested the CPI leaders including ML Narayana. The CPI AP secretary Ramakrishna condemned the arrest of Narayana and others and demanded action on the election officials and demanded the repolling for the Pamur-2 MPTC position.