ELURU: The alleged kidnap of a woman Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituency (MPTC) member from the ruling Congress lead to tension on Tuesday, forcing the official machinery to defer the election.

According to information, Jinni Dhanalakshmi, member of Nayakapodu tribe, who was elected from Mulagalampalli MPTC, came to the MDO office in the run up to the election for the Mandal Parishad president and went missing at the time of elections.

Congress workers led by District Cooperative Central Bank Chairman Karatam Rambabu resorted to a rasta roko and dharna in front of the MDO office, stalling the election process, suspecting the hand of Telugu Desam Party behind the "kidnap" of their party member.

The police registered a case of kidnap against 10 TDP and CPI(M) leaders, who included former MLA Kondreddy Viswanadham and the election was deferred in view of the law and order problem arising from the episode.

The Congress won four MPTCs while the TDP-CPI (M) combine scored an equal number, necessitating a tiebreak.

Unexpectedly, the Congress fell in a minority with the missing of their member in the last minute. The official top brass put off the election regardless of the TDP's contention that the election could not be suspended if there was a quorum as per the Election Commission's guidelines.

The U-turn

To everybody's amusement, the "abducted" MPTC member surfaced after the deferment of the election, along with her husband and made a statement before the media that she went home to attend to her ailing son.

Later, she withdrew her statement saying that some strangers took her away in a car and forced her to vote for the TDP for a sum of Rs. 3 lakhs.

A fiction

TDP former Minister Kotagiri Vidyadhara Rao dismissed the kidnap episode as a fiction fabricated by the Congress and demanded the arrest of the DCCB Chairman for stalling the election process.

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