Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu, today said that his party had lodged a complaint against the YSR Congress Party with the Election Commission of India (EC) claiming that it had "committed several irregularities" during the Tirupathi by-election.
In the complaint, the party reportedly urged the EC to implement stricter monitoring and checking methods to curb the continuous influx of outsiders to the "23-Tirupati (SC) parliamentary constituency" who were allegedly being brought in by the YSRCP to cast "bogus votes".
Speaking to the media, Naidu alleged that the ruling party leaders had transported hundreds of fake voters in buses to Tirupathi and had made them cast their votes.
"I want to ask the SEC why it has removed check-posts that can easily prevent such irregularities. A huge number of fake voters have been coming to Tirupathi. Minister Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy had housed these voters at a convention centre owned by him. How come the police didn't lift a finger even after witnessing these irregularities? It was actually a leader of the BJP who caught some fake voters. When TDP workers also caught such voters, the police arrested the leaders instead of the offenders," he fumed.
"The leaders of the ruling party have been acting like a gang of bandits and have been routinely mocking the democratic ideals on which our country is run," the former CM added.
Both the BJP and the TDP have alleged that the YSRCP had committed massive irregularities during the polling for the by-election. BJP leader G V L Narasimha Rao had even attacked the police for being "mute spectators" to the grave "subversion of democracy" in AP.
Naidu has been going after the Jagan government over the issue of electoral malpractice for some time now. He had recently announced that his party had decided to
boycott the ZPTC and MPTC elections in the state as it had no faith in the State Election Commission's ability to conduct fair elections.