AICC member and Election Commission Coordination Committee Convenor G Niranjan today lodged a complaint against the TRS, for allegedly violating the Model Code of Conduct ahead of the upcoming MLC elections in the graduates' constituencies of Warangal-Nalgonda-Khammam and Hyderabad-Mahabubnagar-Rangareddy.
Niranjan reportedly took up the matter in a formal complaint with the Chief Election Commissioner of India, Sunil Arora. A copy of the same was released to the media later in the day.
In it, Niranjan accused IT and Industries Minister K T Rama Rao of violating the election code by unfairly soliciting the support of the heads of various educational institutions and teachers' associations at a meeting at the Saint Mary's Pharmacy College, Secunderabad.
He said that the minister had addressed the meeting to woo the gathering in favour of the TRS candidates, and that this was an egregious violation of the code. He cited Chapter 16 (Defacement of Public/Private Property), Annexure XVI, Enclosure II, which says, "Educational institutions including their grounds (whether government-aided, private or government) shall not be used for political campaigns and rallies."
TPCC head N Uttam Kumar Reddy had also recently called out the party for indulging in election-time malpractice, claiming that it was
"coercing" the voters of the six poll-bound districts into supporting its candidates in the upcoming MLC elections.
One wonders what impact all this will have on the TRS' performance in the upcoming elections.