Civic polls: No vote for VIPs

Hyderabad: A clutch of bigwigs in the city will not get to cast their vote since they are residents of the Secunderabad Cantonment Areas and not registered voters of Greater Hyderabad. The list includes Congress MLC, K. Janardhan Reddy, TDP MP, C. Malla Reddy and former Malkajgiri MP of Congress Sarve Satyanarayana, including TRS MLA of the cantonment Mr Sai Anna who are voters of SCB.

On the bureaucrats end it includes IPS officer Mr Avinash Mohanti and his father former IPS officer Mr A.K. Mohanty who are residents of Mahindra hills area of SCB. IAS officer and the government’s top gun, Mr B.P. Acharya and his wife Ms Ranjeev Acharya who is also an IAS officer are among them.

The State Election Commissioner Mr Nagi Reddy was a former member. However, over three months since the officer has shifted base to GHMC ward. “SCB is under a special act where the head of the area is an Army official and ward members are civilians.  SCB’s functioning is similar to a municipal body but has certain specialised features. It has its own voters list and residents cannot vote for other municipal body elections”, he said.  

Over 12,000 odd EVMs are to be used for the elections on February 2. The GHMC is using two types of EVM ballot units that is N-series and P-series in which N-series is for 15 candidates and P-series is for 16 candidates.