Poll panel seeks report on BRS party activity in Pragati Bhavan

The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) supremo and Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao in Hyderabad on August 21, 2023.
| Photo Credit: NAGARA GOPAL

The Election Commission of India is said to have taken a serious note on the complaint lodged by the Congress that the official residence and camp office of Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao was being used for party activities in violation of the election model code of conduct.

Officials said that Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Vikas Raj has asked the District Election Officer (DEO) to submit a report on the issue immediately. A senior officer said that the DEO had been asked to give his report on the allegations immediately as any party activity in the official residence of the Chief Minister would be considered a poll code violation.

The Chief Minister handed over the B-forms to the BRS party candidates in Pragati Bhavan last month and the activity had been going on for the past few days. In fact, the B-Forms were given to Ministers K.T. Rama Rao, T. Harish Rao and others a few days ago.

Objecting to this and stating that it was a violation of the poll code, senior vice president of the Telangana Congress G. Niranjan shot off a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar. His contention was that Pragati Bhavan was public property and could not be used by political parties for their personal purposes when the election code was in vogue.

Based on the complaint, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Telangana was directed to inquire and the CEO in turn asked the DEO, who is also the GHMC Commissioner, to submit the report.