Jagan Apprises Governor Of Violent Incidents In AP

YSR Congress Party chief Y S Jaganmohan Reddy today called on Governor E S L Narasimhan at Raj Bhavan and presented a memorandum on the "violent incidents" that occurred in Andhra Pradesh during the general elections and their aftermath.

Jagan, accompanied by senior leaders of his party, met the Governor and closeted with him for a half hour. During that time, he apprised the Governor of the "TDP-sponsored" violence and attacks against his party MLAs and functionaries at different places in the State.

Speaking to the media later, the YSRCP chief said, "We have lodged a complaint with Governor Narasimhan about Chandrababu Naidu, who had appointed his henchmen in crucial places to help the TDP in all ways during the elections and to induge in post-poll violence, and sought his intervention. There were many instances of violence and attacks on YSRCP cadre as Chandrababu Naidu has promised out-of-turn promotions to his community in return for targeting the our party workers and sympathizers."

Jagan also narrated to the Governor how Speaker Kodela Siva Prasada Rao had gone into a polling booth and locked himself up "to create a vicious atmosphere and provoke the onlookers, instigating violence", and the police did not file a case against him but registered cases against YSRCP workers in Guntur and other places.

The strong rooms where the EVMs were being stored at various places should be guarded and strict vigilance should be ensured through pressing para-military forces into service as there was an incident in Machilipatnam where unauthorized people had opened the strong room and attempted to tamper with the EVMs, Jagan added.

On Chandrababu Naidu's complaint about the EVMs, he said that such "theatrics" were not new for the CM, and that the latter always wanted someone or something to blame for his failures. Instead of gracefully accepting the people's verdict Naidu was trying to make a mockery of the process, Jagan said. It was the same EVMs that were used in 2014 when Naidu had won, and the YSR Congress did not complain then, he pointed out. And just three months before the general elections, the Congress had won Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka, and there were no complaints by the TDP then. Before the EVMs were put to use the polling agents verified them and conducted a mock polling of 50 votes, and only after they certified the EVMs did the actual voting begin, he said.

YSRCP leaders Dharmana Prasada Rao, Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy, S V Mohan Reddy and Parthasarathy and a host of others were part of the YSRCP delegation that called on the Governor.