The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : TDP opening accounts in voters’ names: Congress

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Monday, Apr 20, 2009
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

TDP opening accounts in voters’ names: Congress

Special Correspondent

Party lodges protest with Chief Electoral Officer

‘Telugu Desam workers also depositing Rs. 500 in each account’
‘ATM cards distributed to enable withdrawal of money now itself’

HYDERABAD: The Congress has lodged a strong protest with Chief Electoral Officer I. V. Subba Rao here on Sunday alleging that Telugu Desam workers, at the instance of the party president N. Chandrababu Naidu, were opening bank accounts in the name of thousands of voters in areas going to polls on April 23 as part of the Cash Transfer Scheme announced in the party’s manifesto.

A Congress delegation, led by Mr. Jandhyala Ravi Shankar, met the CEO complaining that TDP workers were also depositing Rs. 500 in each account and distributing ATM cards, benefiting “the selected persons”, to enable them to withdraw money now itself. This amounted to a big inducement to the voters.

Application

The delegation said the Telugu Desam Party even designed an application for the scheme, uploaded it into the Internet so that the “beneficiaries” could download and fill it up and apply for the cash benefit under the scheme. The implementation by the party was going on unbridled all over the Phase II areas, it said. Mr. Shankar said these inducements by the TDP were the biggest fraud perpetrated by the Telugu Desam on the election system and it must be contained forthwith. “Otherwise, the elections will not be free and fair,” he fumed.

The CEO told the delegation that the complaint had been forwarded to the Election Commission for action and a decision was awaited. The CEO interacted with the Election Commission on Sunday for its advice on the complaints received against MIM president Asaduddin Owaisi as also Mr. Naidu. However, no decision was conveyed.

The complaint against Mr. Owaisi, which was lodged with the CEO by several parties barring the Congress, was that he had violated the election code by challenging Director-General of Police A. K. Mohanty to “shed his uniform for an electoral battle with him”.

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