HC sets aside objection by Madhava Reddy in DCCB chairman poll

The order clears way for Raghava Reddy's election for the chairman post Warangal: The district Congress committee president Donthi Madhava Reddy, who challenged the election of his party colleague Janga Raghava Reddy as the DCCB chairman, has faced a setback. His attempts to prevent Raghava Reddy to get elected as the chairman of DCCB have failed as High Court directed the State Government to re-start the election process where it was halted couple of months ago. The High Court single judge bench headed by Justice Nagarjuna Reddy heard five separate petitions filed by different persons and gave the judgment on Wednesday. Following which jubilant celebrations held here by the followers of Raghava Reddy whose election as the chairman of the District Central Cooperative Bank would likely to be endorsed, if everything goes well. It might recalled that the election of DCCB held on Feb 19, 2013 in which Raghava Reddy was set to be elected unanimously as no other director filed nomination for the post. The process was postponed following a police complaint by his opponent Madhava Reddy. Madhava Reddy accused Raghava Reddy of kidnapping the newly elected directors and stage managed the DCCB chairman election by forcing the directors to support him, even as the directors who supported the latter claimed they did so voluntarily. This prompted the postponement of declaration of the election result and the matter reached the High Court. Raghava Reddy filed petition in the High Court seeking to declare his election. Yerra Janaki and Chirra Uppalamma who were elected as co-option members also filed a petition seeking to uphold their election while Madhava Reddy filed petition seeking to stay the announcement of the election result. While the matter was pending before the High Court, the State Government issued notification on March 21 for electing new DCCB chairman by appointing Nalgonda divisional cooperative officer Tumma Prasad as the election officer replacing district cooperative officer B Sanjeeva Reddy who conducted the earlier election. Then Raghava Reddy filed another petition seeking the court to squash the election notification issued by the State Government. The case witnessed six adjournments before the final judgment came on Wednesday. "Justice prevailed, the government and the DCC president tried to prevent my election in an unjust manner. But they failed to win" said Raghava Reddy in a statement on the day. Bottom line was that the court verdict was also said to be a set back to the Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy who wanted to see Madhava Reddy as the DCCB chairman and took the issue as a matter of prestige and tried to snub Raghava Reddy for defying his diktat.