KCR Smothering Democracy To Win MLC Seat For Daughter: Congress

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President & MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy alleged that the ruling TRS was smothering democracy to win the MLC seat of the Nizamabad local bodies constituency.

He was addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan on Monday, along with TPCC Working President & MP A Revanth Reddy and ex-Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir.

Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the Kalvakuntla family had murdered democracy after coming to power in 2014. He alleged that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had turned politics into a dirty trade by routinely indulging in bulk purchase of elected representatives of the opposition parties, turning the representatives into commodities who could be purchased for a price.

"KCR and his family are earning huge illegal wealth through corruption and commission in various projects, and utilize the same money to purchase elected representatives of other parties," he alleged.

The TPCC chief said that the same script was being played out today in Nizamabad, where all democratic norms were being thrown to the winds for victory in the upcoming MLC election.

He said that the TRS lacked the strength to win the Nizamabad local bodies constituency MLC seat, but after fielding his daughter K Kavitha as the TRS candidate, KCR was engineering a mass defection of MPTCs, ZPTCs, councillors and corporators belonging to other parties into the TRS.

"Those local bodies' representatives were elected by the people who were effectively voting against the TRS. However, by making them join the TRS, KCR is insulting the people's verdict. KCR has no respect for the people's choices, democracy or the Constitution of India. The people of Nizamabad had soundly rejected Kavitha in the last Lok Sabha election. Making elected representatives of other parties defect to the TRS now to make his daughter an MLC through illegal, unethical and backdoor methods is basically insulting the people," he alleged.

He added that the TRS leaders were not only violating the Model Code of Conduct, they were also violating the Covid-19 guidelines by organising massive meetings. He said that the Congress in contrast always believed in ethics and morals, and never violated the law even if it had to lose an election.

Reddy said that the Congress had lodged a complaint with Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora demanding the disqualification of Kavitha as a candidate.

Speaking on the same issue, Revanth Reddy said that the Election Commission of India should immediately act on the complaints lodged by the Congress regarding the violation of the MCC in the run-up to the Nizamabad MLC elections. He alleged that the TRS had kept the defecting MPTCs, ZPTCs, councillors and corporators in various resorts, and demanded that the ECI send observers to check the irregularities and take stern action.

Shabbir Ali said that MLCs Ramulu Naik and Bhupathi Reddy had been disqualified when they had supported the Congress in the last elections. However, the ECI did not show the same promptness when elected representatives of the opposition parties had defected to the TRS.

As per the Panchayat Raj Act, a person elected on a party symbol may not defect to any other party till the end of his/her term. Defection would automatically lead to their disqualification. But this rule was not being applied in the run up to the Nizamabad MLC elections where local body representatives of other parties were openly joining the TRS.

He expressed regret that the Election Commission had not taken any action despite the Congress furnishing clear evidence of defections on multiple occasions.