Andhra Pradesh   

Charge against polling booth staff

By N. Rahul

HYDERABAD, MAY 4. The Major Industries Minister, K. Vidyadhar Rao, has accused the government employees manning polling stations of creating havoc, marring the electoral prospects of the Telugu Desam in a large number of constituencies in the State.

In an exclusive interview to The Hindu here on Monday, Mr. Rao said 80 per cent of the seats where the TDP might lose by a margin of less than 5,000 votes would be because of the ``havoc'' created by the staff. They brazenly walked into the polling compartments to ``guide'' voters, especially those unfamiliar with the working of voting machines, to press a button other than the one corresponding to the TDP symbol. He was witness to such mischief in a polling station in his Chintalapudi Assembly constituency in West Godavari district.

Mr. Rao wondered why the staff acted with vengeance against the State Government though it had taken up several welfare measures for them.

Appearing upbeat about the TDP's prospects, Mr. Rao, however, did not paint a rosy picture about his party in his district. He gave the TDP seven seats and the Congress four, and said a keen contest was on the cards in the remaining five, a far cry from the 1999 polls when the Congress won a lone seat out of 16.

The Minister said neither "anti-incumbency", "anti-Chandrababu Naidu" nor "anti-district level leadership" was responsible for the situation. The ire of the voters was against the second line of leadership and the party cadre, which had monopolised politics in the district for two decades. He said the TDP could still make it since women had voted for the party in larger numbers than in 1999.

Mr. Rao admitted that the voters in his own constituency were dissatisfied because the work was not taken up on a link channel between the Nagarjunasagar Left Canal and the Tammileru reservoir.

He attributed the delay to a court stay granted on a petition filed by Congress leaders.

He also did not rule out the negative impact on the party in West Godavari because of infighting.

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