Cross voting, symbol confusion hits Kutami

The fear of cross voting and confusion over electoral symbols now haunts all major political parties in the state. Reports gathered from party sources by the Congress, the Telugu Desam, the TRS and the Praja Rajyam on the voting pattern in 154 Assembly and 22 Lok Sabha constituencies indicate largescale cross voting in many districts.

The last minute alliance between the TD and the TRS confused voters over the electoral symbol. Both the TRS and the Td fielded candidates in several constituencies despite electoral alliances. In these places the symbols of both the parties, car (TRS) and cycle (TD) were printed on electronic voting machines.

In the Secunderabad Parliamentary constituency both the TD and the TRS candidates are in fray “officially”, though both are part of the Mahakutami or the political grand alliance. Voters who wanted to support the Mahakutami were confronted by car and cycle symbols, making it difficult for them to choose between the two. Since the state Assembly and Parliament elections are held simultaneously, political parties fear that voters might have supported different candidates for Assembly and LS seats. Reports from Warangal indicate that it was a Herculean task for the Mahakutami members to tell the voters to cast their votes for the TRS in Warangal (SC) Lok Sabha and CPI candidate in Mahbubabad (ST) Lok Sabha seats. In many places it resulted in a lot of confusion.

In Palakurthy constituency, many TD supporters cast their votes thinking that they were voting for the TD candidate Mr Errabelli Dayakar Rao. But as the first EVM was that of the Lok Sabha candidate, they had inadvertently voted for the TD’s rebel Lok Sabha candidate, Mr Dommati Sambaiah, who got the cycle symbol. And later, most of them voted for the Congress nominee thinking that they were voting for the Lok Sabha candidate. But it was the Assembly candidate, Mr Dugyala Srinivasa Rao, who they voted for.

There was similar confusion in Station Ghanpur where the TD’s candidate, Mr Kadiam Srihari, is contesting against the Congress nominee, Mr T. Rajaiah.