india

Updated: May 08, 2019 22:58 IST

The Congress in Telangana on Wednesday strongly objected to the sudden announcement of schedule for holding by-elections to three vacant Legislative Council seats under local bodies’ quota, at a time when the local body elections are still going on.

All India Congress Committee official spokesman Dasoju Sravan met the full bench of Election Commission of India headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora at Nirvachan Sadan in New Delhi and submitted a memorandum raising objections over the conduct of elections for the three MLC seats.

The EC issued a notification late at night on May 6 for holding by-elections to three MLC seats under local bodies’ quota on May 31. The seats have fallen vacant in December last due to resignation of three sitting MLCs – Patnam Narender Reddy under Ranga Reddy district local bodies’ constituency, Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy under Nalgonda local bodies’ constituency and Konda Muralidhar Rao under Warangal local bodies’ constituency.

Sravan said the EC could have conducted the elections to these three vacant seats in March this year along with the MLC elections held for two teachers and one graduate constituency. “However, for unknown reasons, the election was dragged till now and all of a sudden, the schedule was announced on the midnight of Monday,” he said.

He pointed out that within hours of the EC issuing the notification, the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi quickly declared its candidates as if it was aware of the schedule well in advance.

The Congress leader said the voters for MLC elections under local bodies’ quota were zilla parishad and mandal (block) parishad territorial constituency members.

“Ironically, the elections to the ZPTCs and MPTCs are being held in three phases, which will be completed on May 14 and results will be declared on May 27. How can he EC conduct polls on May 31 without having the list of voters?” he asked.

He said the contestants for the MLC seats wouldn’t even get the required number of proposers at the time of nominations. This was a serious flaw committed by Telangana Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) in conducting a free and fair election, he said.

CEO Rajat Kumar clarified that the old voters’ list of ZPTCs and MPTCs would be used to conduct the MLC elections and so, it won’t be a problem.

But the Congress ridiculed this argument and described it as a mockery of democracy. “By May 27, new ZPTC and MPTC members would get elected. How can the EC conduct the polls with old voters’ list on May 31?” Sravan asked.

When contacted, TRS MLC and spokesman Palla Rajeshwar Reddy said though new ZPTC and MPTC members would get elected on May 27, the tenure of the old members would continue till June. “Only after the new mandal parishad and zilla parishads are constituted, the old members cease to function,” he argued.