KARIMNAGAR: Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer R. Ramaseshan on Thursday conducted a public hearing on the open ballot issue of the Karimnagar local authorities constituency elections for the Legislative Council. On this occasion, the CEO also inquired about the reported open ballot of Lingampet MPTC member in Jagtial mandal on March 17.

He had collected the written statements from presiding officer Mohd. Abdul Razzak, Congress party candidate Ch. Laxman Rao, TDP polling agent J. Satyanarayana, Congress polling agent K. Damodar Rao, and Lingampet MPTC member T. Raji Reddy. During the public hearing, Raji Reddy said that he had not displayed his ballot paper after casting the vote. He said that his ballot paper slipped out of his hand and fell down while coming out of the enclosure and he took up the ballot paper and put it in the ballot box.

On the other hand, the presiding officer and TDP agent said that the MPTC member had displayed the ballot paper after casting his vote.

Congress candidate Ch. Laxman Rao, TDP candidate Ch. Sudhakar Rao, Collector M.V. Satyanarayana, Superintendent of Police Y. Gangadhar, Joint Collector K. Sashidhar, DRDA Project Director T. Chiranjeevulu, DCC president T. Santosh Kumar and others were also present.

Meanwhile, Lok Satta district unit leaders have urged the Karnataka CEO to suggest the EC to fix election expenditure for the Council elections too. In a press note here on Thursday, Lok Satta district president N. Srinivas and general secretary T. Rajamouli urged the EC to disqualify the candidates who have spent crores of rupees and organised camps during the electioneering for the local authorities constituency and teachers constituency.

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