Uttam writes to CEC, requests postponement of MLC polls

 Hyderabad: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president Uttam Kumar Reddy on Thursday wrote a letter to Chief Election Commissioner of India Sunil Arora requesting him to postpone the MLC elections under Local Bodies quota in the State.

The Congress leader said that there is another serious flaw by the Election Commission in the conduct of elections for three MLCs through local bodies.

As per the scheduled released on May 6th night, candidates may file the nominations from May 7 onwards, but so far till Thursday no voters list was published by the ECI/CEO in Telangana.

In order to file nomination, every candidate is mandated to be proposed by at least 10 registered local voters but how is it possible in the absence of published voters list, he asked.

He also said that the candidates have lost two days, May 7 and May 8, already to file their nominations and one is not sure when the voters list would be finally published.

When new elected representatives of MPTC/ZPTC come into existence on May 27, it is illogical to conduct election on May 31 with old ZPTCs and MPTCs, he added.

"If at all as per the law, there was a need to complete the elections of three MLCs within six months from the time they were vacant why the Election Commission did not conduct these elections along with Graduates and Teachers MLCs elections that were held in March," Reddy questioned.

He said the three local body MLC seats were vacant from December 2018. He felt that there was some conspiracy in the whole issue as to why the schedule was given on May 6 night and notification on May 7 morning without prior public display of voters list.