Chandrababu Naidu for fresh elections to Andhra Pradesh local bodies

Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh: Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president N Chandrababu Naidu on Sunday demanded fresh elections to the local bodies in Andhra Pradesh.

A press note from the TDP read, "TDP National President N Chandrababu Naidu stressed the need for conducting fresh elections for Andhra Pradesh local bodies in order to ensure a level playing field to the candidates of all opposition parties on a par with the ruling (YSR Congress Party) YSRCP."

Naidu accused Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy of disrespecting and attacking State Election Commission instead of realizing the immediate need to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the state.

"Naidu asked whether it would be democratic to get 69.80 per cent MPTC posts declared as unanimously won by YSRCP in Kadapa district. In Chittoor district, 37.40 per cent MPTCs were declared unanimous in favour of YSRCP. Jagan Reddy, his ministers, and MLAs misused their power to get 20 per cent to 70 per cent seats unanimous by disqualifying opposition candidates," the press note read.

Naidu demanded that fresh elections should be conducted in Andhra Pradesh under the supervision of the Central Election Commission because of the inability of the SEC to ensure a free and fair election.

"In the past few days, the SEC could not take effective steps to control YSRCP leaders and the police who used physical threats to tear nomination papers of opposition candidates and also terrorized rival candidates into withdrawing their nominations at many places," it read.

Stating that the Andhra Pradesh Police have "proved to be unreliable" under the present conditions, Naidu stressed for deployment of Central Reserved Police Force and Central paramilitary forces for the conduct of elections.