HC: Petition claims Palakurthi Congress candidate is NRI, seeks name removal from voters’ list

Hyderabad: A writ petition in the Telangana High Court on Friday claimed that Mamidala Yashaswini, the Congress MLA candidate from the Palakurthi constituency, is an NRI (Non-Resident Indian) and hence is not eligible to stand for the ensuing Telangana Assembly elections.

The petition argued for the deletion of her name from the electoral roll in the Achampet Assembly constituency under the Nagarkurnool Parliamentary constituency, Telangana.

L Ravichander, senior counsel for the petitioner informed the court that Yashaswini stayed in India for about 5.5 months in the last five years because of which she is not eligible to contest the elections in the Telangana State. As per Section 19 of the Representation of the Peoples Act, 1950, a person who intends to contest elections in the country, has to be above 18 years of age and he has to be an ordinary citizen of the country.

Further, the counsel informed the court that Yashaswini has not surrendered her EPIC number ‘despite being a NRI.’ EPIC stands for Electors Photo Identification Card and is the Voter ID card number.

The Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice NV Sravan Kumar, after hearing the contentions of the counsel for the petitioner directed him to get instructions with regard to the date of publication of the draft electoral revised list and also the date on which the final electoral revised list will be published.

The Division Bench was hearing a writ petition filed by Kampally Deva, a resident of Rajeev Nagar Colony, High School, Dindi, Chinthapally Vangoor mandal in Nagarkurnool district seeking a direction to the ECI, chief electoral officer of Telangana, district election officer and collector of Nagarkurnool and the electoral registration officer and RDO of Achampet to delete Mamidala Yashaswini’s name from the electoral rolls.

The case was adjourned to November 15.