Cong alleges misuse of official machinery by SP

Rae Bareli, May 7 (UNI) AICC president Sonia Gandhi's daughter and her election agent Priyanka Vadra today forwarded a letter to the Election Commission (EC) alleging threat to voters by ministers of the ruling Samajwadi Party.

The letter was written by district Congress Committee president Uma Shanker Mishra.

Addressing the media here, Mr Mishra claimed despite EC notice to all leaders, who were not voters of the constituency, to leave Rae Bareli by 1700 hrs yesterday, several ruling party ministers and legislators had stayed back in the constituency to ''cajole and browbeat'' the electorate.

On Friday night, the EC had asked all such campaigners, including Ms Gandhi's campaign manager Rahul Gandhi to leave the constituency as soon as campaigning ended yesterday evening.

The list handed over to EC included names of UP ministers Balram Yadav, Lallan Yadav, Ramgovind Chaudhury, J P Yadav, Surendra Patel and Rakesh Verma.

The letter also claimed that MLCs Rakesh Rana and Naresh Uttam were present in the constituency despite EC orders.

However, Priyanka Vadra, younger sibling of Rahul and an SPG protectee, would stay here since she has been appointed the election agent of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who is seeking re-election after resigning from Rae Bareli parliamentary constituency following the office of profit controversy.

The EC notice also directed all candidates in fray for the May 8 bypoll, including Ms Gandhi, BJP's Vinay Katiyar and Samajwadi Party's Rajkumar Choudhary to remove all posters, hoardings and banners by midnight of Friday, which have been posted without the permission of the municipal corporation.

Issuing the notice, District Magistrate and Returning Officer Jitendra Kumar said if the candidates failed to remove posters and banners, the municipal corporation would carry the cleansing exercise and the expenses would be borne by respective candidates.

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