EC Lodges Case Against Tandur Municipal Official

The Election Commission of India (EC) today ordered the Vikarabad district Collector to register a criminal case against Tandur Municipal Chairman Tatikonda Swapna for allegedly casting a fake vote in the recently-concluded MLC elections in the Hyderabad-Rangareddy-Mahbubnagar constituency.

Telangana Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Shashank Goel has reportedly written a letter to the Collector and the concerned election officer to register a criminal case against Swapna after an inquiry conducted by the EC revealed that she had indeed cast a fake vote in the elections.

The inquiry was conducted after the Congress candidate for the seat, former minister G Chinna Reddy, lodged a complaint with the body, and submitted evidence backing his allegations against the municipal official.

Since news of her misconduct first broke some days ago, demands for her resignation have been growing louder.

However, Swapna has maintained that she has not broken any laws by casting her vote as she had registered herself as a voter before the elections but did not receive confirmation about her name being included in the voters' list. She believed that she would be given a voter slip at the polling booth after registering herself, she says.

What makes things especially sticky is that she is affiliated to the TRS. The whole kerfuffle does not at all bode well for the party since many leaders in the state have already been alleging that it had used a number of "underhand" means to secure the MLC seats of the Hyderabad-Rangareddy-Mahbubnagar and Warangal-Nalgonda-Khammam graduates' constituencies.