Andhra Pradesh - Anantapur   

TDP cries foul in Anantapur

Staff Reporter

Congress says defection due to bickering in TDP

ANANTAPUR: The TDP termed the election of Zilla Parishad chairperson and vice chairperson held here on Monday as "most unfair and murder of democracy." In fact, some party leaders said there was no election at all as it was conducted after forcing out TDP ZPTC members and legislators.

Constant pressure

As soon as the meeting was reconvened after lunch to elect ZP chief and vice-chief and as the members of both parties started entering the meeting hall TDP ZPTC members from Bukkaraya Samudram and Nambula Poola Kunta, G. Srikanth Reddy and T. Raghavaiah, respectively, slipped into the Congress group.

They sat with their heads down and were guarded by a few strongly built Congress ZPTCs.

The defected members only responded by folding their hands and nodding their heads in rejection to all the efforts of TDP ZPTC members and two legislators to get them back.

As the TDP legislators shifted their protest to the podium, Ministers J.C. Diwakar Reddy and N. Raghuveera Reddy and Anantapur MP A. Venkatarami Reddy orchestrated the proceedings by exerting constant pressure on the returning officer to go ahead with the election process and succeeded.

Meanwhile, the Ministers said they had taken the support of two TDP members for better development of the district.

"They joined us willingly without any pressure or lure as they knew their responsibility for district development," the Ministers said after the Congress bagged the ZP chief and vice chief's posts.

Mr Raghuveera Reddy attributed the defection of two members to internal bickering in the TDP between Paritala Ravindra and other groups.

He also alleged that the TDP legislators had also tried to blackmail the RO with the demand to stop election process stating that the meeting was not in order.

On the other hand, TDP legislator P. Keshav and P. Sunitha alleged that the district administration was hand-in-glove with the ruling party in the ZP chief and vice chief's election.

The Congress had applied the same tactics they had succeeded with last year when G. Thippeswamy was elected ZP chief after engineering a defection in TDP, they alleged.

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