The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Gandhi Bhavan all wired up

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 10, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Gandhi Bhavan all wired up

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, MAY 9. The Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee is gearing up for the D-day developments in an e-way. Gandhi Bhavan, the party headquarters here, is all wired up for responding to the eventful Tuesday when counting takes place for the 294 Assembly segments in the State.

A media centre established in the party office is connected to all districts through the NIC-Net facility and the functionaries have installed computers to facilitate information flow from and to the districts to meet the exigencies of the day.

The modern media control room is an experience in itself for Gandhi Bhavan regulars and scribes covering Congress affairs. Yadav Reddy and Shesh Narayan, looking after media affairs apart from advising the PCC president politically nowadays, are hopeful that the APCC would be fully prepared to react to the day's developments without any delay.

The APCC spokesperson, R. Anandabhaskar, on Sunday urged the Election Commission to ensure a smooth counting process. Officials should have standby batteries in place at counting centres to avoid confusion in case of power failure, he said.

Meanwhile, all activity in the party has come to a standstill with top leaders camping in New Delhi for Sonia Gandhi's blessings.

Though the PCC president, D. Srinivas, declared on the record that he was not in the race for the Chief Minister's post before leaving for Delhi on Saturday, he vowed to fight for the post in private talk. He declared on Saturday that he would not rest till he succeeded or at least, would make Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy fight for the coveted position.

Synchronising his moves carefully with G. Venkataswamy and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi president, K. Chandrasekhar Rao, Mr. Srinivas is planning to project `Telangana choice' as the best for the party.

Dr. Rajasekhara Reddy, on the other hand, has already met senior Congress leaders like S. Jaipal Reddy, N. Janardhan Reddy, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ambika Soni, Ahmed Patel and Pranab Mukherjee to hold consultations on the formation of the Government. He has briefed them about the likely scenario that would emerge on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Nizamabad district Congress president, Gangaram, criticised Mr. Srinivas for aspiring to become the Chief Minister though he lacked the status to hold the post.

YSR cautions party men

Meanwhile, Dr. Rajasekhara Reddy, in a statement, cautioned his party candidates, election agents and polling agents to be more alert on the counting day to scuttle possible machinations by the TDP.

He said all counting agents must be present in counting halls an hour in advance and should stay back till the process was over. He alleged that as the TDP was on the verge of defeat, it could stoop to any level and hence greater caution needed to be exercise in overlooking the process, he said.

Dr. Rajasekhara Reddy said the agents must ensure that the seals of strongrooms and paper seals pasted on EVMs were intact. The tally of the polling booth number must match the EVM totals and the number of votes polled by candidates as per their serial numbers and the total tally must be tabulated carefully, he said.

No result slip must be signed in the event of any difference or omissions and commissions and a written complaint must be lodged with the Returning Office and an acknowledgement must be obtained, he said.

He appealed to them not to get provoked by rivals and ensure peaceful conduct of the counting process.

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