Alleging that the State Government, which has to extend a helping hand to the Election Commission to conduct free and fair elections, was behaving in a shameless manner, BJP senior leader Bandaru Dattatreya has addressed HIS 51st letter to the Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Tuesday urging the State Government to bring tough laws to curb the flow of black money and distribution of cash, liquor and ornaments during the election time.
In his letter, Dattatreya has said that the bye-election results might not be in favor of the ruling Congress party though it spent money indiscriminately. He predicted that the Congress party candidates may not get their deposits in many constituencies including Parakala constituency. He alleged that the Chief Minister and Ministers had participated in the bye-election campaign leaving the governance to the winds.
He alleged that the ruling Congress party was advocating that the persons, whoever it may be, would be punished if indulged in illegal activities, but the leaders were indulging in corrupt practices adopting dual standards. He said that the Chief Minister, who has taken a pledge on constitution, himself violated the election code and spoke against the rules.
He said that the people didn’t believe in AICC general secretary in-charge of state party affairs Gulam Nabi Azad, AICC observer for bye-elections Dr Vayalar Ravi, PCC Chief Botcha Sathyanarayana, Ministers and party candidates who had explained about the development and welfare schemes.
Alleging that no Chief Minister had indulged in illegal activities like Kiran Kumar Reddy, Dattatreya said that the election commission had ordered the minister and an MLA to leave the district, and this shows how the ruling Congress leaders were misusing the power during the bye-elections.
Dattatreya said that– the election commission seized Rs.41.93 crores during the present bye-elections for 18 Assembly constituencies and one Parliamentary constituency, as against the Rs.38 crores in 2009 general elections in 294 Assembly constituencies. “Ruling Congress party, TDP and YSR Congress Parties are indiscriminately behaving during these bye-elections”, he alleged.
Predicting that the Congress party may win one or two seats in the bye-elections, Dattatreya said that it was not proper to the Chief Minister to spend huge money in the bye-elections to get the praise of high command and come out from the political crisis. All the illegal activities were showing the ruling Congress party’s attitude to protect the power, he said. The attitude of ruling Congress party in the present bye-elections shows that they may adopt any sort of illegal way to save their government, he alleged. He said that it is estimated that the political parties might have spent approximately one thousand crore rupees for the bye-elections. (NSS)