Jagan Lauds YSRC Leaders, Cadres For Their Election Efforts

YSRC president and former chief minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has appreciated party leaders and cadre for contesting the local body elections with commitment and securing a good number of seats, despite what he called electoral malpractices by the ruling party.

Several party leaders and workers from various districts arrived at Tadepalli on Wednesday to attend a review meeting convened by Jagan Mohan Reddy following the local body elections.

Addressing them, he said the YSRC's vote share has increased compared with the 2024 election results. He maintained that YSRC would have secured a higher vote share had the elections been conducted in a free and fair manner. He accused Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu of resorting to undemocratic methods because the latter could not tolerate the growing public support for the YSRC.

The former chief minister charged that Chandrababu Naidu had introduced new methods of electoral manipulation and overturned results in places where the YSRC had secured victories. He accused the TD supremo of trying to justify the alleged irregularities by spreading false narratives about local body elections held during the YSRC regime.

Party leaders told Jagan that they had not witnessed such electoral malpractices in their political careers. They alleged that the State Election Commission had failed to ensure free and fair elections.

They further alleged that bouncers had been deployed in place of authorised counting agents at some counting centres. Further, relatives had been kidnapped to force the candidates to withdraw their nominations. During vote counting, large numbers of votes polled for YSRC candidates had allegedly been declared invalid, while power supply had been deliberately cut to manipulate the results, the YSRC leaders complained.