Chitturi Bapineedu

HYDERABAD: In a dramatic twist to the Council election, Paderu MLA L. Raja Rao surprised everyone by casting his vote in the Council elections on Thursday in spite of his party's earlier resolve to abstain from the polling.

The BSP reversed its decision after APCC leaders urged the Congress high command at the last minute to contact Ms. Mayawati to prevail upon Mr. Raja Rao to cast his vote in favour of the Congress.

The Congress party's SOS to the BSP became necessary as its MLA from Tanuku, Chitturi Bapineedu, who is not in good health, failed to mark the ballot properly.

He reportedly cast first preferential votes for two candidates which would have invalidated his vote. Mr. Bapineedu, who had been asked to cast his first preferential vote for Mr. Paladugu Venkat Rao, sought a second ballot paper and voted again.

Heated argument

Earlier, the polling was stalled for 45 minutes by TDP members protesting against the issuance of a second ballot paper to Mr. Bapineedu. They entered into an argument with Congress MLAs after Mr. Bapineedu sought replacement of his ballot paper and voted again.

The MLA, who had voted around 11.30 a.m. for his party candidate, claimed he had `inadvertently dealt' with the ballot paper and wrongly marked his preferential vote. At this juncture, some of the TDP legislators rushed to the polling hall and lodged a protest with election officials over the propriety of supplying the second ballot paper.

Congress MLAs also trooped in to argue that the MLA had a right to seek a second paper if the first paper was damaged.

The Congress and the TDP lodged separate complaints with Chief Electoral Officer V. Bhaskar seeking his intervention.

Government Chief Whip N. Kiran Kumar Reddy and Whip D. Sridhar Babu petitioned Returning Officer (RO) Tuljanand Singh to book a case against TDP leaders for preventing officials from discharging their duties.

TDP candidates — P. Yadagiri and M. Padmaja — urged the CEO to invalidate the second ballot paper issued to Mr. Bapineedu as he had deliberately torn the first ballot and thrown it away at the behest of Congress leaders.

Poll managers of main parties were forced to pore through law books to verify whether a candidate was entitled to seek a fresh ballot paper.

Election officials informed them that "an elector who has inadvertently dealt with his ballot paper in such a manner that it cannot conveniently be used as a ballot paper.... obtain another ballot paper.."

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