Senior Congress leader and former chief of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) Ponnala Laxmaiah wrote to President Ramnath Kovind requesting for an enquiry into the Telangana Assembly elections which were held last month.
Alleging that there were several discrepancies in the way votes were cast and tallied, Ponnala demanded that a re-election must be held.
“On the election day itself, many EVMs in many regions did not function properly. This is purely the fault of the Election Commission who replaced many EVMs upon learning that they are faulty but still could not control several irregularities that crept in because of which the otherwise free and fair democratic elections were out in a one sided or biased manner,” Ponnala alleged in his letter.
The former TPCC chief had contested from Jangaon in the polls held on December 7, but had lost to sitting TRS MLA Muthireddy Yadagiri Reddy. The Congress leader also pointed out that it took more than 36 hours after the polling completed to announce the poll percentage in Telangana, an act that raised suspicion.
“While all this is raising eyebrows, it is even more dubious to see that the results turned out exactly the way it was stated before by the TRS chief, which further testifies the irregularities. There were quite a few instances reported in the media about votes registered in the name of dead people and women forced to vote for TRS. Shocking results were revealed in an investigation carried out that reported a fake voter scam with 1.5 lakh ghost voters in seven Telangana constituencies registering hundreds of votes from houses where only a handful of people live,” the letter states.
“Therefore, it is distinctly visible that several types of EVM tampering in the Telangana Assembly Elections. Hence, we pray to the President to order an enquiry, nullify and re conduct elections in the state,” it added.