Hyderabad: A scuffle broke out at a polling station in Andhra Pradesh’s Tenali assembly constituency when the sitting MLA and YSRCP contestant Annabathuni Siva Kumar slapped a voter in the queue line and the voter gave it back in earnest.
The slapping-match occurred in the morning hours of polling when the voter Gottimukkala Sudhakar, standing in the queue at a booth in Ithanagar locality in Tenali, reportedly objected to the MLA jumping the queue-line to cast his vote.
Some of the enraged MLA’s men pounced on the person, raining blows on him, which terrified other voters, especially women present in large numbers.
The incident, caught on camera, was shared widely on social media and even telecast on news channels.
Chief Electoral Officer Mukesh Meena ordered the police to register a case against the MLA and confine him to his residence till the voting is completed on Monday.
Andhra Pradesh’s 4.14 crore registered voters are exercising their franchise in the simultaneous polls being held Monday, for the 175 state assembly segments and the 25 Lok Sabha seats.
Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief and opposition leader Chandrababu Naidu accused the YSRCP leaders, cadres of resorting to violence, as people were coming out in large numbers to vote.
“It is atrocious…for just that he was asked to follow the queue line, the YSRCP MLA and contestant has attacked a voter at Tenali,” Naidu said, demanding the officials of the Election Commission to also act on the violent incidents reported from Macherla, Railway Kodur, Punganuru among others.
Amid the opposition criticism as the slap incident gained traction, YSRCP MLA Annabathuni came out with his version alleging that Sudhakar was inebriated, abusing him and his wife and also some of the voters in the line.
“The man in question was drunk, was creating a nuisance, and was abusing me and my wife. He accused me of supporting the BC, SC, ST, and minority communities despite being from the Kamma community, to which he also belongs. I got enraged over his baseless accusations, very shocking casteist remarks which were totally unacceptable to me,” the MLA said in a video statement released to the media
While agreeing that he jumped the queue and assaulted the man, the YSRCP legislator said that a section of media favourable to the TDP, “blew the incident out of proportion without knowing, presenting the context.”
In another video, the MLA identified the man as Gottimukkala Sudhakar and that he is a software engineer camping in Tenali to help TDP-JSP-BJP alliance candidate, JanaSena political committee chairman and former united AP assembly speaker Nadendla Manohar “to win by unfair means like distribution of money for votes through QR codes, online transfers.”
YSRCP, too, has accused the TDP of resorting to threats, attacks on YSRCP men at various places like Jaggayyapeta and malpractices like printing manifesto on voter slips in Kadiri.
Guntur collector Venugopala Reddy told ThePrint that the police have detained the YSRCP MLA at his home till the evening.
“A contestant can visit all the booths in the constituency he is in fray from to observe the polling patterns, etc but he has to follow the queue at the booth where his vote is in order to exercise his franchise. There is no exemption,” said Reddy, who is also the district electoral officer.
However, many times contestants, politicians and even celebrities flout the rule and voters, too, willingly allow them to jump the queue, respecting their busy schedule or out of admiration.
In April 2014, film star-turned-politician and then Union minister Konidela Chiranjeevi was stopped by an NRI voter in the queue line at Hyderabad’s posh Jubilee Hills when the “megastar” and his family were reportedly walking past them to the booth.
“Do you need special treatment?” Karthik questioned as Chiranjeevi tried to pacify, and expressing regret went back to join the line. “I have respect for him. If it was only Chiranjeevi, fine but my objection was to his entire family (wife, daughter, and son Ram Charan) also joining him,” Karthik had told the media.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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