"Habitual Offender": Andhra Pradesh CM attacks former CM Jagan for halting elections through litigations

Addressing the media, the Chief Minister remarked that Jagan Mohan Reddy speaks an incomprehensible language and is consistently working with the sole agenda of claiming that law and order has collapsed in the state, purely to demand Presidents Rule and extract political mileage.

Calling him a prolonged litigant operating under the guise of politics, Naidu noted that Jagan follows a routine of filing repetitive court petitions and lunch motions, only to see them postponed, while systematically propagating untruths through extended press conferences after arriving from Bengaluru.

Chief Minister Naidu firmly rejected allegations that YSRCP candidates were prevented from participating in the nomination process, pointing out that police personnel actively provided security and transported candidates in official vehicles to facilitate their filings.

He further cited the statement of YSRCPs own former Deputy Speaker from Bapatla, who publicly confirmed that the nominations concluded smoothly without hindrance.

CM Naidu also condemned Jagans deceitful posture and recalled the grim reality of the 2021 pandemic period, criticising how school teachers were forced into duty guarding liquor outlets to manage queues.

Highlighting that the excessive uncontested victories in 2021, including 24 per cent of MPTCs statewide and massive unanimous sweeps in Kadapa, were achieved through intimidation and brute force, the Chief Minister urged the public to recognise the habitual pattern of falsehoods designed to mislead the state.

On Friday, YSRCP President YS Jagan Mohan Reddy launched a blistering attack on the states electoral machinery and the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP), accusing election authorities of systemic bias, outright forgery, and subverting the democratic process.

Speaking to reporters, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy claimed that the current leadership has a documented history of partisanship favouring Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.

Tracing back to the 2019 general elections, when the current SEC served as Chief Secretary, Reddy alleged that executive defiance of election directives compromised institutional neutrality.

"The whole allegation is on the State Election Commission. In 2019, when Chandrababu Naidu was the Chief Minister, this person was the Chief Secretary, and the state held general elections under his administration. At that time, the Chief Election Commissioner had asked the Chief Secretary, who is now the State Election Commissioner, to transfer certain officers away from electoral duties. However, this person went out of his way to help Chandrababu Naidu by reinstating one of the officers who had been removed from his position, the then Intelligence DG, A. B. Venkateswara Rao, back into position. The Chief Election Commissioner was so displeased with him that he removed him from the post of Chief Secretary because he was allegedly displaying a partisan attitude towards the TDP," Reddy told reporters.

He alleged the administration was manipulating data and utilising bureaucratic hurdles to bypass Supreme Court directives.

YSRCP President said, "When the ULB elections took place, there were 19 locations where these people actually went ahead and did not permit YSRCP candidates to file nominations. So, we went to the Supreme Court and asked the Supreme Court to intervene and permit us to file nominations... Now, what has happened? The Election Commission has permitted only four out of those 19 locations, and even in those four locations, two are only partial. Now, the Election Commission under the Chandrababu Naidu government has once again deteriorated to a level where, in spite of the Supreme Court's verdict, these authorities have used scrutiny as a tool to go further ahead and debar candidates in another four municipalities..." (ANI)