Pulivendula: Former AP CM YS Jagan said that TDP coalition parties are celebrating unanimous victory of 17 Urban Local Bodies is a shameful. Without allowing the oppositions parties for filing nominations, how the TDP coalition candidates won unanimously.

He said those 15 Chairperson posts for TDP, one for Jana Sena and one for BJP, and boasting that 21% of the 2,108 wards were unanimous. Victories secured by denying opponents the opportunity to contest cannot be called genuine. There is nothing to celebrate in claims that six municipalities, including those in YSR district, have gone to the coalition. YS Jagan challenged Chandrababu to face a genuine contest. He pointed out that in Pulivendula, nominations could be filed in only 20 of 40 wards.

Of seven ZPTC seats, contests were allowed in only four. Nomination papers were snatched and torn, while others were rejected during scrutiny. Candidates seeking permission to file nominations were lathi-charged. Police fired 37 rounds, injuring two persons in the legs. Twenty stun shells, 40 smoke shells and seven hand grenades were used.

Was filing a nomination their only crime? he asked. YS Jagan claimed that attempt-to-murder cases were registered against 924 people in Pulivendula after police fired on YSRCP workers. He alleged that even after Supreme Court directions, there has been no change in Chandrababu, the SEC, collectors, or SPs. In Kadapa district, contests were prevented in 17 of 39 ZPTC seats.

Candidates were not allowed to file nominations in six places, while nominations in another 11 places were rejected after midnight in the name of scrutiny. YS Jagan called upon party workers to rise against the injustice and said the movement to protect Democracy should begin in Pulivendula and spread across the State. Though YSRCP was restricted to contests in only 20 wards and four ZPTC seats, the fight would continue, he added.