Hyderabad: Alleging that caretaker Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had misused state machinery to defeat him, Congress’ Gajwel nominee Vanteru Pratap Reddy on Monday moved a petition before the Hyderabad High Court seeking a direction to the Election Commission to count VVPAT printed slips irrespective of the outcome of the automated counting of the EVMs.
He said he would bear the expenses for counting of less than 2 lakh votes polled, if needed.
Mr Reddy’s counsel made a mention before a division bench comprising Chief Justice Thotta-thil B. Radhakrishnan and Justice S.V. Bhatt to hear the writ in a lunch motion during the afternoon session. He stated that the votes of 38 dead people were cast in Gajwel constituency. There were reports that Mr Rao’s name was found in two polling booths, he alleged.
The Chief Justice observed that though Mr Rao had two votes, he cast one and the second vote had been removed but not updated. The Chief Justice refused to grant lunch motion.
In the petition, Mr Reddy alleged that the government machinery had indulged in all sorts of poll violations to defeat him and that he had no confidence in the government or polling staff. He submitted that if 20 votes were tampered in each EVM, he would lose more than 7,000 votes in about 306 polling booths.
