The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Poll procession holds up traffic

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Saturday, May 10, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Poll procession holds up traffic

Special Correspondent

Scores of Congress leaders park their vehicles indiscriminately on Jamai Osmania road

HYDERABAD: With Friday being an auspicious day, several prominent personalities took to the road to file their respective nomination papers for the forthcoming bypolls to the three Assembly constituencies in the city. Commuters were put to severe inconvenience with traffic jams on all procession routes.

The procession taken out by the Congress candidate for Musheerabad Assembly constituency, T. Manemma, was a good example of that.

The traffic trouble started in the very beginning when she came to the Sitaramanjeneyaswamy temple in Adikmet to offer prayers accompanied by Secunderabad MP Anjan Kumar Yadav, Minister for B.C. Welfare M. Mukesh and Congress city chief D. Nagender.

Overzealous police closed the Jamai Osmania road all of a sudden with scores of Congress leaders parking their Safaris, Boleros and Innovas indiscriminately on the road. It became a daylight nightmare for those rushing to their offices as traffic was diverted into already clogged narrow lanes. “Why should they cause so much hardship to us? It’s a shame that it is happening in the presence of senior party leaders,” observed Rajender, a teacher.

He wondered if the EC was taking note of all this as the conduct code was in place. The good teacher would have wanted the EC to record the entire procession if he would have known that all through the route, commuters had a hard time with repeated jams.

Cavalcade

The cavalcade preceded by a scooters rally passed through areas of Ramnagar, Bakaram, Musheerabad, Basheerbagh to the returning officer’s office located in the municipal circle office at Abids. Inside, the RO’s office, several party activists were asked to move out as they exceeded the permitted number. But, still 20 persons including Ms. Manemma went inside and four sets of nomination papers were filed. Election officials later explained that five persons can be allowed for each set of papers!

“It is a contest between me and the BJP candidate. We will win because people are aware of Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy’s development works.

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