Hyderabad: BJP complains to Governor Tamilsai about poll violations by TRS

Hyderabad: Telangana BJP has sought intervention of Governor Tamilsai Soundararajan complaining against the role of the ruling TRS in the recent municipal elections.

A State BJP delegation led by party State chief Dr K Laxman met the Governor and presented a representation.

The BJP delegation said during the entire course of elections the ruling party TRS took recourse to blatant misuse of power, right from the stage of issuing a notification to the last phase of the election of chairmen, vice-chairmen, Mayor and deputy mayor positions.

Laxman briefed the Governor that the scale and magnitude of misuse were unprecedented and showed the ruling party's anxiety to grab as many municipalities as possible. "This was irrespective of whether it has numbers or not, subverted all the procedures and unfortunately the Election Commission remained a mute spectator to the entire process," he alleged.

Explaining Section-5 and how the TRS Minister, MP and Election Officer violated it, the BJP said that the District Election Officers called the elected representatives on the day of declaration of elections i.e., January 25, 2020, and asked to choose municipalities of their choice to cast the ex-officio votes on the same night.

The BJP delegation pointed out how the State Education Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy, elected MLA from Maheshwaram constituency, has initially chosen Badangpet Municipal Corporation as an ex-officio member. But, in violation of section-5 of the Telangana Municipalities Act, 2019, she changed her choice from Badangipet to Tukkuguda on January 26.

Also, the municipal authorities did not take any action on the party's complaint, they said.

Highlighting another violation, the BJP delegation claimed Rajya Sabha MP K Keshava Rao was allowed to chose Tukkuguda municipality in violation of the rules and to cast his vote on January 27.