TRS MPTC candidate accused of threatening rival Cong contestant

Nagarkurnool: Congress party MPTC candidate from Gaggalapally village of Nagarkurnool district has filed a case with the Superintendent of Police, Nagarkurnool and even petitioned with the State Election Commission stating that he was forced to withdraw his nomination as he was threatened with dire consequences, including death, by the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi candidate.

The political drama is said to have started with the Returning Officer of Nagarkurnool, soon after the withdrawal of nomination of Dodla Venkat Reddy from Congress party, declaring TRS candidate Dodla Eshwar Reddy as unanimously elected for the Nagarkurnool MPTC.

After more than 12 hours of the unanimous declaration of Dodla Eshwar Reddy as MPTC elect, the Congress candidate alleged that he was threatened by Eshwar Reddy who forced to withdraw the papers.

Narrating his ordeal, Dodla Venkat Reddy said, "I was forcibly taken in a car by Dodla Eshwar Reddy's associates and was taken to one Ramesh Goud's house in Nagarkurnool. They locked me up and put pressure on me to withdraw and even threatened to kill me and my family members. Fearing them, I agreed to withdraw, after which they had left me at my in-law's house in Mahadevpuram village in Bijinapally mandal. Further, they left a bag with Rs 10 lakh in the hands of my wife Vijayachitra and asked her to not to reveal it to anyone."

Dodla Venkat Reddy had also expressed fear of having life threat from the TRS candidate and urged the Nagarkurnool SP to provide protection to him and also urged the police to take action against the TRS candidate for threatening him and forcing him to withdraw his nominations. The Congress leader also gave a petition to District Collector E Sridhar and RDO Mahdusudhan Nayak urging them to take action against Dodla Eshwar Reddy. The SP, District Collector and the election officials have said that they would send the report to the State Election Commission and accordingly investigation would be taken up and based on the report, a decision would be taken.

Meanwhile, the TRS candidate has rubbished all the allegations and called them fabricated only to malign his image in the public.