Congress to take leagal route against anomalies in polls

Hyderabad: The poll battle over, it’s now a legal battle the Telangana Congress is preparing to fight.  Congress leaders of the state are upset at the results of the recent assembly elections that they were confident they would win. Not only did the party not come to power, but several Congress stalwarts were defeated. In constituencies such as Kodada, Dharmapuri, and Ibrahimpatnam, Congress candidates were defeated by small margins.

The party’s senior leaders in Telangana, including Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, Shabbir Ali, V Hanumantha Rao, Ponnala Lakshmaiah, A Revanth Reddy, and D K Aruna, met to discuss the assembly results.

They strongly believe that several irregularities occurred which led to the defeat of some party candidates. In several constituencies the total polled votes do not tally with the counted votes. The votes counted were more than the votes polled. The Telangana Congress leaders are therefore saying there is a conspiracy in the counting of votes and they have decided to fight the issue in the courts.

It was decided that the contesting party candidates must collect all the data relating to their assembly constituencies and file a petition in the High Court if they believe any irregularities have occurred during the counting of votes. Candidates have been directed to file petitions individually and the TPCC will also file a separate petition on this issue. The Telangana Congress leadership is consulting advocate Jandhyala Ravishankar on this issue.