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Hyderabad, Nov 7 (IANS) Flying squads of the Election Commission of India (ECI) searched the houses of some BRS leaders ahead of the by-election to the Jubilee Hills assembly seat in Hyderabad on November 11.
Election officials, with the help of central police teams, searched the houses of former MLA Mary Janardhana Reddy and MLC T. Ravinder Rao as “cash meant for distribution among voters” was kept in their premises.
Searches were conducted at Janardhan Reddy’s house in Moti Nagar and Ravinder Rao’s house in Rahmat Nagar.
Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) condemned the searches at the homes of its leaders and blamed the ruling Congress party.
BRS leaders questioned police searches in areas where the model code of conduct is not in place. They wanted to know why only the premises of opposition party leaders were searched.
BRS leaders alleged that the Congress government had established a reign of terror to win the by-elections.
Janardhan Reddy told reporters after searching his house that Election Commission officials did not find any money. He alleged that the Congress party is taking undemocratic steps due to fear of defeat.
Janardhan Reddy said A. Revanth Reddy is the only Chief Minister who addressed 13 street meetings for a by-election.
“Congress has no faith in democracy and that is why it is resorting to intimidation of political rivals,” he said.
Meanwhile, Hyderabad minister in-charge and Congress leader Ponnam Prabhakar rejected BRS’s allegation. He said that the flying squads work under the Election Commission and they can search anywhere.
A delegation of BRS leaders will meet Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar in New Delhi on Friday evening. A delegation led by BRS parliamentary party leader KR Suresh Reddy will meet the CEC.
BRS has already sought the intervention of ECI to ensure free and fair by-elections.
In a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner on Thursday, BRS demanded deployment of central forces across the constituency for the November 11 bypoll.
Suresh Reddy demanded deployment of central forces and preventive measures against large-scale rigging, fake identity card making, booth capturing and intimidation by the Congress party and its candidate Naveen Yadav.
The BRS leader urged the ECI to install CCTV cameras and live webcasting systems at all polling stations under central monitoring.
–IANS
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