Vijayawada: The name of former minister Daggubati Venkateswara Rao, husband of former Union minister and BJP leader Daggupati Purandeswari, figured in the list YSRC Assembly candidates released on Sunday. Mr Rao has been listed to contest from Parchur in Prakasam district, a seat that was supposed to have gone to their son Hitesh Chechuram.
It is learnt that Mr Hitesh's application to relinquish his US citizenship was still pending, and would take some time to resolve. This has prevented the party from nominating him. As per the Representation of People’s Act, a person who is not an Indian citizen is not eligible to contest or vote in any election in the country.
It is learnt that the seat was given to Mr Rao till Mr Hitesh becomes eligible to contest. It was with the intention of doing the groundwork to create the political platform for Mr Hitesh that Mr Rao joined the YSRC a few days ago.
Mr Hitesh studied production engineering in the US and lived there. According to Section 5 of the Citizenship Act of 1955, a person, who was originally an Indian citizen and became a foreign citizen must stay in India at least for five years before applying for Indian citizenship again. The Indian Constitution doesn’t allow dual citizenship.
Mr Hitesh’s citizenship issues comes in the backdrop of the row involving then Vemulawada MLA Chennamaneni Ramesh, who once possessed a German passport.
His citizenship came under scrutiny when Mr Adi Srinivas, who unsuccessfully contested against him on a Congress ticket in 2009, filed a complaint, after which the High Court issued orders setting aside his election.
Mr Ramesh later challenged the order in the Supreme Court, which has asked the Union home ministry to submit a report.
