Telangana elections 2023: Clashes reported in few areas; BJP state chief writes to ECI accusing police of supporting BRS candidates

Incidents of scuffles and minor violence were reported from a few places in Telangana where voting for Assembly Elections was underway on Thursday. The ruling BRS workers were involved in arguments and fistfights with Congress and BJP workers at a few places with BJP state president G Kishan Reddy writing to ECI accusing Telangana police of supporting cadres of the ruling party.

Hyderabad: Voting in Telangana Assembly polls went on peacefully though incidents of scuffles and minor violence were reported in sporadic places in the southern state where BJP and BSP accused the police of siding with the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) cadres.

Sources said workers of BRS and opposition parties were involved in fistfights in a few places. BRS workers allegedly stopped state Congress president-party candidate Revanth Reddy's brother Kondal Reddy from visiting the polling booth in Kamareddy on the grounds that he was not a voter there and was not authorised to visit.

"Kondal Reddy is roaming around with a fake pass and speaking with the Returning Officer. He is roaming around with 20 people. He went to three polling stations with them in three vehicles but police did not intervene...They are indulging in hooliganism after coming here. We got the people accompanying him arrested by the Police. But the police released them in 10 minutes...We will complain to the Election Commission," a BRS worker said.

However, Kondal Reddy alleged an attack by the BRS workers on him. "...I am a general agent, I went to the booth but the BRS workers stopped me and my vehicle. They tried to attack. Congress workers are with me. Their (BRS) vehicles had been following my car for the last 2-3 hours in a bid to stop me. I have been visiting the polling booths generally since morning...I have complained to the SP. Let's see what happens," Reddy said.

A scuffle also broke out at a polling booth in Janagaon Assembly Constituency. The scuffle reportedly broke out between workers of the ruling BRS, Congress and BJP. The purported video of the scuffle was caught on camera and shared on social media. The video shows an unidentified man slapping another person while holding him by his collar as a policeman proceeds to diffuse the situation. After some time, the man was let off and went on his way.

BJP Telangana president G Kishan Reddy, citing an incident from Janagaon, alleged that Telangana police were supporting the BRS candidates in their 'electoral malpractices'. In a letter addressed to the Election Commission of India, Reddy complained that BRS candidates and workers were illegally moving in and around polling booths in large numbers while the police remained mute.

“The police are threatening the BJP workers to implicate them with false cases. In the Amberpet constituency, the BRS candidate and his son were found openly distributing money and no action has been taken so far. Police are openly helping BRS workers in conducting free and fair polls,” the letter said.

The BRS candidates and their workers in all the constituencies [are] moving around the polling stations comprising 100 to 200 people. When BJP workers complained about the same to the police and other officials, instead of taking action against such incidents, they are allowing the BRS workers to attack the BJP workers," Reddy wrote in the letter to ECI.

Meanwhile, the Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) Telangana unit chief RS Praveen Kumar also alleged that BRS workers indulged in violence against a BSP party worker in Sirpur-Kagaz Nagar.

"BRS goons have attacked our cadre in front of policemen in Sarsala village of Sirpur AC and the attacker is yet to be arrested and he was given free run to go to another booth and scare the voters away! What kind of policing is this?" Kumar, a former IPS officer, wrote on X sharing a graphic picture of an injured party worker.

"I have never seen such weak policing in my 26 years of police service. The police are bowing to the ruling BRS party leaders and acting unilaterally and threatening activists at the polling stations," Kumar added.

Amid these sporadic incidents of scuffles, voters queued up in good numbers across Telangana to seal the fate of nearly 2,500 MLA aspirants in the polling being held for 119 Assembly segments in the state.

BRS aims to retain power for a third time while the Congress is keen to upset the ruling party's chances. The BJP, also keen on forming its first government in the southern state, has left no stone unturned to ensure victory and had deployed a battery of national leaders and Chief Ministers of the saffron-party-ruled states to reach out to the public during the 50-day-long campaigning.