In a surprise move that could cause headache to YSR Congress Party, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has issued a notice to the party President Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy over the suspension of another party founder Siva Kumar. The EC has given time till March 11th for Jagan to respond.

Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) was founded by Siva Kumar in 2011 who is a huge fan of YS Rajasekhar Reddy and by profession, an advocate based in Telangana. Jagan had become the President and Vijayamma as honorary President while siva Kumar was appointed as general secretary to Telangana.

During Telangana elections, K. Chandrasekhar Rao had criticised YSR and that ticked off Siva Kumar who then appealed to people not to vote for TRS. However, following this, Siva Kumar posted a newspaper ad to vote for Congress which did not go down well with the YSRCP High Command.

Following this, Siva Kumar was suspended by YSR Congress Chief permanently. After this, alleging that Jagan violated the party’s foundation rules, Siva Kumar filed a plea with Election Commission that Jagan has no right to take over the party and that the party should be handed over to him.

Amravati: With an Election Commission (EC) team visiting Andhra Pradesh to audit the state voter list, the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) on Thursday instensified its attack on the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP), claiming over 59 lakh fake voters had been added to the list at its behest.

Out of the total 3.69 crore names on state voter rolls, over 59 lakh (16 per cent) are invalid or duplicate, the YSRCP said at a press conference on Thursday and alleged that the TDP government was doing everything in its power to subvert democracy and steal the elections.

The party also released a detailed survey pointing out 59,18,631 voters under 12 different categories such as duplicate, illegal, invalid, bogus and demographically similar entries. It said the number of such voters was 52.7 lakh in September 2018.

The party further said that over 20 lakh people have votes in both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

YSRCP chief Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy had on February 4 met the Chief Election Commissioner to bring to his notice discrepancies in the state voter list and requested him to intervene in the matter to ensure free and fair elections.

YSRCP Legal Cell President P. Sudhakar Reddy then filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the High Court seeking directions to the EC to rectify the discrepancies.

The High Court has sought a clarification from the Election Commission in the matter after an audit of the list.

Following the directive, a 10-member EC team, led by former Deputy Election Commissioner Vinod Zutshi, arrived in the state on Wednesday to conduct an audit of electoral rolls.