BRS's Big Charge And Demand To Debar Revanth Reddy From Bypoll Campaigning

The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has lodged a formal complaint with Telangana's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) against Chief Minister Revanth Reddy and Congress candidate Naveen Yadav, alleging gross violations of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) ahead of the crucial by-election in the Jubilee Hills constituency.

BRS leaders, including former minister Gangula Kamalakar, have demanded immediate action, including the registration of a criminal case against the Chief Minister and the removal of his name from the list of Congress star campaigners.

The primary complaint against Reddy centres around a meeting held earlier this week in Yousufguda, which saw a large turnout of cine workers, who are the crucial voters in the Jubilee Hills segment.

The BRS alleges that Reddy violated the model code by making "specific promises and assurances" aimed at directly influencing the cine workers. Such statements, made while the MCC is in force, constitute a corrupt practice and a serious electoral offence under the Representation of the People's Act, 1951, it contends.

The BRS wants Revanth Reddy to be debarred from campaigning in the constituency and has asked for his name to be deleted from the list of star campaigners.

The party has also requested the Election Commission to calculate the expenditure incurred for this meeting and charge it to the election account of Congress candidate Naveen Yadav, claiming it was a blatant misuse of the Chief Minister's official position and state machinery for electoral gain.

The BRS and the BJP have also intensified their scrutiny of the Congress candidate, alleging the use of intimidatory and abusive language. He is already facing a criminal case related to alleged electoral malpractice.

While the BRS's latest complaints generally refer to the misuse of power, the police case filed against Naveen Yadav stems from an allegation of voter inducement, where he was reportedly seen distributing copies of voter ID cards (EPICs) to the locals. The police have charged him under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Representation of the People Act for undue influence and corrupt practices.

The BRS had earlier also levelled charges of extensive electoral fraud, alleging that the Congress was colluding with officials to enroll thousands of duplicate and fake voters in the constituency, an accusation that the party's working president, KT Rama Rao, has publicly detailed with specific examples of multi-entry voter IDs.

While the Congress has not issued an official statement directly addressing the model code violation charges against the Chief Minister, party sources have indicated that they are proceeding with their campaign strategy, effectively dismissing the allegations as politically motivated.

Regarding the allegations against Yadav for distributing voter ID copies, sources close to him offered a rebuttal, stating that the cards they distributed were merely laminated photocopies intended only as a "voter awareness exercise" to motivate citizens to participate in the bypoll and were not to be passed off as official Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPICs).

The Congress leadership has doubled down on its ground game, assigning senior MLAs and MLCs to take responsibility for polling booths and voter mapping, signalling their intent to fight the by-election aggressively, despite the opposition's multiple complaints to the Election Commission.