Hyderabad: Dissident Congress ticket aspirants Dr Kuruva Vijay Kumar and Shaik Mohammed Kaleemuddin complained to the Enforcement Directorate on Thursday, seeking an investigation into the financial transactions of TPCC president A. Revanth Reddy, AICC general secretary K.C. Venugopal and AICC Telangana in-charge Manikrao Thakre.
They said the complaint was being raised in the larger interests of protecting the democratic electoral process and to prevent a breach of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
They cited the seizure of 195 crore by the income-tax department in Karnataka in two separate raids. They alleged that ticket distribution had turned into an illegal exercise of ‘cash for ticket’ by brazen money laundering, extortion, property deals on benami while issuing ‘B Forms’ to Congress aspirants.
They alleged violation of the Udaipur Declaration that two tickets will not be given to any family and tickets will not be given to defectors before they serve for five years. They alleged that the 55 tickets in the first list of 119 seats were given in gross violation of the declaration. Tickets were given to those who did not even apply for seats.
The complaint has also been raised with the joint director (intelligence, New Delhi), joint director (ED, Hyderabad), Election Commission of India (New Delhi) and the chief electoral officer, (EC, Telangana).
