Hyderabad: The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) on Thursday said it will approach the Supreme Court and High Court, accusing the Election Commission of India (ECI) of inaction and bias in handling poll code violations by the Congress in the Jubilee Hills bypoll.
Speaking at a press conference at Telangana Bhavan, former MP B. Vinod Kumar and BRS general secretary Soma Bharat Kumar said they had submitted detailed complaints. However, neither Chief Electoral Officer Sudarshan Reddy nor the ECI had acted on them.
“The Chief Minister openly threatened to stop welfare schemes if voters didn’t back Congress. That is a direct violation,” Vinod Kumar stated. He also accused Congress candidate Naveen Yadav of intimidating BRS workers. “Why is the CEO silent?” he asked.
Vinod Kumar pointed out that the Commission had earlier suspended former CM K. Chandrashekhar Rao and ex-minister G. Jagadish Reddy for similar violations. “Why the double standards now?” he questioned.
Bharat Kumar warned that the ECI’s silence was damaging public trust in democratic institutions. He urged the deployment of central forces in Jubilee Hills, claiming the local police were under Congress influence.
The leaders said they had already met the Chief Election Commissioner in Delhi to raise these concerns. Referring to former CEC T.N. Seshan, they said he had once stood up to the Prime Minister’s Office to protect the integrity of elections.
Unless the ECI takes impartial action, Bharat Kumar said, people will begin to question the very need for its existence.