The BJP and the Jana Sena Party (JSP) have requested the Indian Electoral Commission (ECI) to lift the by-election in the constituency of Tirupati (SC) and to publish a new announcement immediately after the results of the MPTC / ZPTC polls were announced on 10 . April.
A delegation from the two parties has also appealed to the ECI to take appropriate disciplinary action against the Secretary of State and Chittoor and Nellore district officials, including police collectors and superintendents, for allegedly violating the ECI’s constitutional mandate and authority.
In a memorandum to the EBI, BJP leaders Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Sunil Deodhar, GVL Narasimha Rao, Om Pathak Neerraj, CM Ramesh and YS Chowdary, as well as the chairman of the JSP Political Affairs Committee, Nadendla Manohar, declared that the constituency of Tirupati is part of it spanning the districts of Chittoor and Nellore Already during the by-election process, the State Election Commission (SEC) issued a notice to resume the MPTC and ZPTC elections, which had stalled in March 2020 due to COVID.
They said the general secretary and police collectors and superintendents / commissioners of the Chittoor and Nellore districts, which are the vastness of the Tirupati constituency, have completely disregarded the ECI’s code of conduct, which is in vogue for by-elections.
The election campaign is therefore invalid and the purity of the elections is impaired.
“Deliberate act”
Alliance leaders complained to the EBI that the government and its officials had deliberately recommended that the SEC deliberately recommend holding the suspended MPTC / ZPTC election on April 8 to disrupt the Tirupati by-election and thereby endanger its purity and sanctity, by attempting to give an undue advantage to the victorious party by setting April 10th as the date of the announcement of the results of the MPTC and ZPTC elections on which the Tirupati by-election campaign would take place.
Since the announcement of the MPTC and ZPTC elections on April 1, the BJP and JSP campaign has been severely hampered by district officials citing the code of conduct applicable to local body polls.
Permission to conduct the Lok Sabha by-election campaign 48 hours before April 8 is denied under the guise of SEC election guidelines. In addition, simultaneous elections created confusion among voters about the symbols of political parties.
While a “glass beaker” was the symbol of the JSP, the same was given to a Navataram party candidate in the Tirupati by-election, they said.