Jagan demands repolling for Pulivendula, Vontamitta ZPTC

Former Chief Minister and YSRCP president YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Wednesday demanded fresh elections under the supervision of central forces and in a fair manner, as the polls held to Pulivendula and Vontimitta ZPTCs on August 12 were just a mockery of democracy.

Speaking to the media here on Wednesday, he said the elections that were held on Tuesday have just ruined the democratic spirit as all YSRCP agents were driven away along with the party sympathizers whose forms and slips were snatched and torn away. YSRCP ZPTC candidates are here to move the court seeking to cancel the elections, he said.

Describing the election as the most atrocious and undemocratic, the YSRCP chief said Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has set in a very bad precedent which is dangerous to democracy, and the spirit of elections is lost by such nefarious deeds as they were held under the cover and shield of police and outsiders taking over the booths and resorting to large-scale rigging.

For about 10,600 votes in 15 booths, a posse of 700 police was deployed not to ensure peaceful elections but to terrorize voters, and the jumbling method employed by shifting polling booths was only to threaten voters midway or send them back.

Showing the clippings of identified active TDP workers from Jammalamadugu and other areas participating in voting and locals expressing anguish for not allowing to vote, he said, even Pulivendula ZPTR candidate was house arrested and MP YS Avinash Reddy who was outside the vicinity of election area was arrested and the police behaved like TDP agents with their one sided bias by allowing TDP cadre from anywhere to roam freely while obstructing genuine voters on the pretext that they are with YSRCP. TDP MLAs and leaders from outside have been supervising the elections, who came with their followers.