Hyderabad, March 17: Stating that there were some ‘persons and forces’ who are working against the Congress’ image and defeat the party in MLC elections, chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy urged his party MLAs to be cautious while casting their vote.
Ahead of the polling, the Congress Legislature Party held a meeting here Tuesday which was attended by 154 of the
total 155 party MLAs Konda Surekha being the lone absentee.
A mock polling was also conducted for the members this evening. PRP and MIM members also attended the meeting. AICC secretary and former AP observor KB Krishnamurthy and APCC chief D Srinivas were also there.
Significantly, the Congress MLAs, loyal to Jagan, had a meeting with him ahead of the CLP meeting. While some MLAs said they would vote for Congress in tomorrow’s polling since no candidate was fielded on behalf of Jagan’s party, others said a decision would be taken tomorrow morning.
Elections are being held tomorrow to fill up 10 seats under MLAs quota. The polling will be held from 9 am to 4 pm.
According to party sources, both the chief minister and D Srinivas wanted the party MLAs to take part in the council elections and ensure victory to the party candidates.
Talking to newsmen later, government chief whip M Bhatti Vikramarka said Konda Surekha could not attend the meeting because of personal reasons. She promised to vote in favour of the party candidate, he added.
As for the mock polling, dummy ballot papers were given to members of the Congress, PRP and MIM to enlighten them on procedure to be followed at time of polling. Each member has to tick four names in order of preference.
–Agencies