Pulivendula, Nov 1: YSRCP President and former Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy staged a sit-in protest outside the Pulivendula Returning Officer’s office, demanding immediate repolling after YSRCP polling agents were driven out of 70 of the 80 booths in the municipality.
YS Jagan reached the RO office along with the affected polling agents and relieving agents and questioned how polling could continue when opposition agents were prevented from entering booths. He urged the Returning Officer to use the authority vested in him, act according to his conscience and order a fair inquiry followed by repolling.
“The decision you take today will not remain confined to Pulivendula. It will become a precedent for how elections are conducted in the future. Seventy polling agents and relieving agents are standing before you and explaining what happened. What more evidence is required?” he asked.
YS Jagan said the agents could be examined individually and that YSRCP was prepared to remain at the RO office until their grievances were heard. The party had hundreds of videos, CCTV footage from several locations and other evidence showing how the polling process was manipulated.
Polling agents were removed from booths, their authorisation cards were taken away and several polling stations were brought under control from early morning. Genuine voters were stopped, voter slips were torn and some were told their votes had already been cast. Agents who were supposed to identify voters and question irregularities were deliberately kept outside.
YS Jagan said he had consciously chosen to protest through democratic means instead of allowing the situation to escalate. “If I myself do not respect democracy and the electoral process, what message will that send to people? That is why we have brought the affected agents before the RO with evidence and are asking the system itself to deliver justice,” he said.
He announced that YSRCP would also approach the courts and pursue a legal battle over the electoral irregularities. He warned that if people lost the right to file nominations and exercise their vote today, failure to defend democracy could threaten other rights tomorrow.
YS Jagan said the State Election Commission, Returning Officers, Collectors and SPs had become “puppets in Chandrababu Naidu’s hands” and described it as a serious systemic failure. He called for an independent and transparent election administration free from political pressure.
Referring to the YSRCP government’s tenure, he said Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar, who had earlier been appointed SEC by Chandrababu, continued to conduct elections when YSRCP was in power, and the government accepted SEC decisions even when officials were removed from election duties.
*“I will vote only in a re-poll”*
YS Jagan, who had come to Pulivendula specifically to cast his vote, announced that he would not exercise his franchise under the present circumstances.
“If I cast my vote now, it would mean that I accept that everything in this election process is proper. I cannot do that. If repolling is ordered in accordance with justice, fairness and conscience, I will definitely come back and cast my vote,” he said.
He said an election must mean a genuine contest in which every party is allowed to participate and people are free to deliver their verdict. Occupying polling booths, removing opposition agents with police support and stopping voters from exercising their franchise could not be called an election.
YS Jagan demanded an impartial inquiry, examination of all available evidence, legal action against those responsible and immediate repolling in Pulivendula, making it clear that he would return to vote only in a free, fair and transparent repoll.
YS Jagan flays TDP coalition for subverting democratic process
