TDP plea to EC on bypoll

Visakhapatnam, Mar 1 (UNI) The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) today urged the Election Commission (EC) to appoint ten IAS officers from outside the state to conduct free and fair repoll in the Visakhapatnam-I Assembly constituency.

Speaking to reporters here, TDP District President B Satyanarayana Murthy accused top state officials of acting like ''agents of the ruling Congress''.

This was proved with EC the directing the state government to transfer District Collector Praveen Prakash for changing the Returning Officer without its prior permission.

The transfer of State Chief Election Officer Narayana Rao, who allegedly failed to ensure a free and fair poll, was another pointer in this regard, he said.

The party would also sent a fresh complaint to EC against Congress Candidate D Srinivas for alleged breach of model code of conduct.

He also denied his the party distributed money to voters before the February 19 poll.

The February 19 polls were countermanded following allegations of largescale malpractices by political parties. The repoll would be held on on March 25.

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