Jubilee Hills bypoll election campaign marred by MCC violation complaints

The Jubilee Hills by-election campaign in Hyderabad has been marked by a spate of complaints filed with Chief Electoral Officer C Sudarshan Reddy over alleged violations of the Model Code of Conduct. Political parties accused each other of bribery, religious appeals, intimidation, and misuse of power.

Hyderabad: The high-octane campaign for the Jubilee Hills by-election over the last few weeks saw a flurry of complaints filed with Chief Electoral Officer C Sudarshan Reddy over alleged violations of the Model Code of Conduct.

Political parties lodged complaints against each other citing breach of various provisions of the Representation of the People Act and the Model Code of Conduct. Allegations ranged from seeking votes on religious grounds, encouraging bribery, preventing opponents from campaigning, to criminal antecedents of candidates and their family members.

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Multiple complaints were filed against Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, apart from several against the ruling Congress and its leaders. The Bharat Rashtra Samithi filed a complaint against the Chief Minister for alleged derogatory remarks, a series of announcements to film workers, appeasement politics and other violations.

There were also complaints accusing Congress leaders, including Revanth Reddy, of threatening to withdraw welfare schemes if voters did not back the party. Another complaint was filed against Congress candidate V Naveen Yadav for distributing copies of voter ID cards to residents.

Citing the past records of the candidate’s father Chinna Srisailam Yadav and his brother V Ramesh Yadav, the BRS urged the Election Commission to maintain close surveillance before and on polling day to prevent disturbance. The party also said it would approach the court against what it termed the ECI’s failure to act against the Chief Minister despite repeated MCC violations and misuse of power.

On Saturday, BRS MLC Dasoju Sravan submitted a representation to the ECI highlighting what he described as large-scale irregularities by the ruling Congress. The BJP also lodged complaints against the Chief Minister over alleged derogatory and inflammatory comments against the armed forces during a campaign speech.

The TPCC, in turn, filed a complaint against union Minister of State for Home Bandi Sanjay for his remarks against the Chief Minister and seeking votes on religious grounds. In another complaint, he was accused of encouraging voters to accept bribes.

TPCC president Mahesh Kumar Goud urged the Election Commission to act against BRS working president KT Rama Rao after he asked voters to accept Rs.5,000 from Congress and vote for the BRS.