Election Commission officials hold talks with political parties in Hyderabad over Telangana's poll preparedness

Hyderabad: Kicking off the poll process for the Telangana Assembly, a team from the Election Commission (EC) held formal consultations with representatives of various political parties in Hyderabad on Tuesday. The team, led by Deputy Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha, also held discussions with Telangana chief electoral officer Rajat Kumar, official sources said, adding that the EC officials would hold consultations on Wednesday with state government officials to assess the preparedness for the polls. The BJP, in a memorandum submitted to the EC, said that as per the poll panel’s revised schedule, draft voters lists of all 119 Assembly segments in the state needed to be made available to all political parties by 10 September. [caption id=“attachment_5139761” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Telangana caretaker chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao. PTI[/caption] However, the same had not been given to the party. Congress leader Marri Shashidhar Reddy told reporters they informed the EC that it was not possible to conduct elections within a short span of time. He said they pointed out out to the officials that caretaker chief minister Chandrasekhar Rao has been claiming that he consulted the constitutional body on elections, which is against the rules. Ravula Chandrasekhar Reddy from TDP said his party sought investigation by the EC on missing names in the voters list. TRS MP Vinod Kumar said they requested the EC to conduct elections as early as possible as the caretaker government can not be functioning for a long time. The MIM requested the commission to keep in mind various festivals while undertaking voters’ registration. They also requested the EC to conduct the polls in a single go. The CPM informed the EC that some pages of the website for registration of voters were not opening properly. It requested the EC to conduct demonstration of EVMs in the presence of all political parties to clear apprehensions, if any. The CPI alleged that Rao dissolved the Assembly prematurely without any valid reason, putting a burden of “hundreds of crores of Rupees’ on the exchequer for conducting elections. The party also alleged that several lakh voters’ names have been dropped from the voters list.