Perceiving threat to the life of their party members as witnessed from the spate of violent activities in the last few days, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has sought protection to the candidates who filed nominations for the local body elections.
The party delegation comprising State general secretary G. Bhanuprakash Reddy, secretary Samanchi Srinivas, district leaders K. Ajay Kumar and Ponaganti Bhaskar among others submitted a representation to Additional Superintendent of Police E. Supraja, requesting the department to provide security to the candidates who have filed nominations.
They recalled that the C.S. Saravana, the party candidate for tenth division of Tirupati Municipal Corporation, was attacked and his nomination papers were allegedly snatched away by ruling party activists, while the candidature of S. Ramya of 19th division was turned down, reportedly without attaching any reason by the electoral officer. Similarly, the 38th division candidate B. Nagaraju was threatened with dire consequences if he did not withdraw his nomination from the fray.
When contacted by The Hindu over the rival parties’ allegations of bias and the SEC finding fault with him, Superintendent of Police (Tirupati Urban) A. Ramesh Reddy said he was deeply pained at the remarks. “Does the police department have any role in rejecting nomination during scrutiny? If the candidates had withdrawn their nominations for some consideration, monetary or otherwise, how are we responsible for the same?”, he wondered.
Mr. Reddy asked where was the question of intimidation and threat when opposition party candidates had filed nomination almost at a par with those from the ruling party in the district.
