Amaravati: AP govt advisor Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy booked for `provocative remarks' on counting process

Amaravati: Tadepalli police filed a criminal against government advisor and YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) general secretary Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy for his remarks on counting agents.

He has been booked under section 153, 505 & 125 of IPC. This follows his remarks that rule-followers are not needed as counting agents on June 4.

The complaint was lodged by Telugu Desam Party (TDP) legal cell general secretary Gudipati Lakshminarayana and former minister Devineni Umamaheswara Rao.

In their complaint, the TDP leaders said that they noticed that Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy had given training to the counting agents at the YSRCP central office on May 29 given the counting process.

The TDP leaders said Sajjala’s remarks are provocative with malafide intention to disturb the counting process. They said the remarks were a violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC). They said the diatribe has the criminal motive of creating rift, enmity, and ill will between different classes and groups.

TDP seeks ECI to initiate action against Sajjala

TDP leaders also submitted a memorandum to Additional Chief Electoral Officer MN Harendhira Prasad, seeking action by the Election Commission of India (ECI) against Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy, for allegedly instructing the party's chief election agents to select counting agents who are prepared to break the law and who possess the ability to subdue agents of opposing political parties.

The TDP leaders claimed that Sajjala's extremely offensive statement would taint the June 4 counting process. They stated that given the violence that transpired during the election time, it should not be taken lightly. The TDP leaders said that they had suspicions that the YSRCP agents would do everything in their power to sabotage the counting, particularly in cases where margins were expected to be narrow.

The TDP leaders also stated the Returning Officers (ROs) had not given any thought to installing CCTV cameras at the locations designated for the seating of counting agents. Consequently, they asked the ECI to take immediate action against Sajjala and directed the ROs of each constituency to arrange for CCTV cameras to be installed throughout the entire region where the counting would take place.