Visakhapatnam: As the postal ballots issue has been continuing between the District Administration and YSRC, another fresh controversy has cropped up in Vizag as Telugu Desam Bheemili candidate Sabbam Hari allegedly campaigned over the phone to get the votes of teachers, through postal ballots.
An audio tape was released by the YSRC leaders, saying that it is the conversation of Sabbam Hari, during a teleconference with teachers, in which he is allegedly asking them to vote for him. The YSRC leaders immediately started alleging that the list of teachers on election duty was leaked from the Collector’s office and that has helped Sabbam Hari to arrange a teleconference.
Bheemili YSRC candidate Avanti Srinivas said that this is a code violation and questioned how Mr Hari could campaign over the phone. “The Collector has to say how the data of election duty staff reached Mr Hari. Some official might have helped them in getting the data. He has spoken to many of the teachers and asked them for vote, which is a violation of Code of Conduct. The Collector has to verify the link and should take action immediately,” he said.
The District Collector has asked for an inquiry to find whether it is the voice of Mr Hari or not and if yes, to find out how the data reached him. “I have ordered for an inquiry to find the voice in the audio tape. If we find that the voice is of Mr Hari, then an inquiry will be done about how data reached him, along with the contact numbers. If he really spoke with the teachers, then this will be a code violation and proper action will be taken,” said District Collector K. Bhaskar.
With YSRC’s issuance of complaint, the Telugu Desam leaders of Bheemili constituency are collecting the date of the newspapers where YSRC candidate Avanti Srinivas had spoken about strategies to get the votes of teachers. The leaders are now thinking to file a complaint against Avanti Srinivas along with the newspaper clippings. However, YSRC has decided not to leave the issue until they get to know from where the data was leaked. They have also filed a complaint to the Election Commission regarding the same.
