Jubliee Hills by-poll: Congress unlikely to field Naveen Yadav over fake voter ID distribution row
In the party meeting on Tuesday, the leaders were upset with the voter ID controversy in Jubilee Hills
By Kaniza Garari
Hyderabad: Congress leader Naveen Yadav seems to have lost the race to contest Jubliee Hills by-poll after he was booked for distributing fake voter ID cards in Yusufguda.
The Election Commission registered a case against Naveen Yadav at the Mathura Nagar police station.
Yadav was one of the candidates shortlisted to contest by poll.
In the party meeting on Tuesday, the leaders were upset with the voter ID controversy in Jubilee Hills.
A senior Congress leader told NewsMeter, “Naveen Yadav's candidature is ruled out because of the issues and cases from yesterday.”
The party leaders met to discuss the strategy for the Backward Class reservation bill to come up for hearing in the High Court on October 8, and also discussed the recent developments in the Telangana Congress.
What did Naveen Yadav do?
According to the Mathura Nagar police report, Congress aspirant Naveen Yadav was involved in distributing fake voter ID cards to residents. This violates the Election Commission of India guidelines.
G Rajinikanth Reddy, Electoral Registration Officer and deputy commissioner Circle 19, Yousufguda, registered the police case against him. The Mathura Nagar police registered a case on Monday under Sections 170, 171, and 174 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhitha and sections 123 (1) and 123 (2) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
Who is the next in line?
Party sources say that Congress is not going to declare the candidate till the last day of nomination, which is October 21st.
A senior member explained, “With this fiasco of Naveen Yadav, the party is going to wait till the last minute to declare.”
Waiting and a guessing game
With the complete media attention and also the opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi and Bharatiya Janta Party paying attention to every detail, Congress is going to wait.
A senior member explained, “The party is going to assess the ground situation. There is already a lot of guessing game after the incident of Naveen Yadav. But many of them have also realized that any wrong step can cost them their political career. For that reason, most of them will now want to underplay. Party leadership in Telangana is not going to take these mistakes lightly.”
What is the strategy?
Congress leadership in Telangana wants the local body elections with their 42 percent reservation for the backward classes to be effective. Hence, a lot of energy is being put into it at the ground level. A senior member explained, “While senior leadership is tackling the legal issues, the party workers and middle-level leaders are asked to work on identifying backward class leaders. This is a tough task as the backward class too is a divided lot with many segments. At the same time, the upper class is miffed, and they are not happy with this.”
