The Election Fee changed the returning officer in Telangana’s bypoll-bound Munugode Meeting constituency on Thursday after he cancelled a candidate’s image—highway curler, one of many symbols the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi desires disallowed over “resemblance” to its automobile image.
The fee’s motion towards Jagannath Rao got here after Yuga Tulasi Social gathering candidate Kolisetty Shiva Kumar approached it, and an area courtroom, towards Rao’s choice previous Wednesday midnight to cancel the image he had been allotted by a lottery system.
TRS minister Ok T Rama Rao objected to the motion and pointed the finger on the BJP. “The BJP is misusing its powers and constitutional our bodies and that is the most recent instance,’’ he stated, including that “highway curler” had been faraway from the checklist of symbols in 2011 however was lately launched to harm his celebration.
The fee changed Jagannath Rao, who’s the income divisional officer of Nalgonda, with B Rohit Singh as the brand new returning officer. It additionally sought an evidence from Rao and reallotted the highway curler image to Kumar.
The fee, which wrote to state chief electoral officer Vikas Raj searching for a compliance report on its motion, stated in an announcement that as per rule 10(5) of the Conduct of Elections Guidelines, solely the fee is empowered to revise allotted symbols. The returning officer’s “order is void, being unhealthy in legislation and info”, it stated.
The fee additionally famous that the returning officer had not heard Kumar earlier than altering his image, “which is towards the precept of pure justice”.
Contending that its votes would get cut up due to confusion over symbols, the TRS has petitioned the fee to not allot digicam, chapati curler, highway curler, tv, ship, stitching machine and cleaning soap dish—symbols that the celebration says seem like its automobile image on digital voting machines.