Cash for votes: Cong demands EC to cancel Telangana by-polls
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AICC general secretary Randeep Surjewala
New Delhi: Congress in Telangana alleged that the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are distributing cash for votes. On Friday, it appealed to the Election Commission (EC) to cancel by-polls to the Huzurabad Assembly Constituency in Telangana scheduled to be held on Friday, The Indian Express reported.
A group of Congress leaders led by AICC general secretary Randeep Surjewala and the party's Telangana head Manickam Tagore visited the EC office to reiterate their demand. Surjewala commented that the Huzurabad by-polls became the "most corrupt and most expensive polls in India's electoral history".
Manickam Tagore said that they had told EC that the Huzurabad's by-polls become a mockery of elections, and votes are on sale. The BJP and TRS were using massive corruptive practices, and votes were being sold at 6000 to 10,000 rupees. He further said that they requested the EC to postpone the by-polls like it had done in RK Nagar and Aravakurichi in Tamil Nadu in the past.
However, he added that EC has acknowledged that more than three crores in cash had been recovered.