TDP to withdraw panchayat poll manifesto after SEC’s directive

After an order from State Election Commissioner (SEC) Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar, the Telugu Desam Party announced withdrawal of its election manifesto “Palle Pragathi-Pancha Sutralu,” released for the ongoing gram panchayat elections. This is the only action initiated by Nimmagadda against the Telugu Desam Party so far.

Ramesh Kumar said that he was not satisfied with the explanation given by the TDP in releasing the election manifesto and asked the party to withdraw all copies of the manifesto distributed in the villages. Sarpanch elections (panchayat raj polls) are being held in Andhra without party symbol, so the ruling YSRCP raised objection for releasing manifesto by the TDP.

TDP leader and former MLA Dhulipalla Narendra announced that the party was withdrawing its panchayat election manifesto in accordance with the instructions of the State Election Commission (SEC). He, however, asserted that it was the right of any political party to declare its people-friendly policies in times of elections. He reminded that many parties had released their manifestoes in Karnataka, Sikkim and other States during the local body elections.

Stating that the TDP would explore all legal options available for it to protect this right, Narendra said the YSRC was obviously afraid of the pro-people manifest of the TDP since the ruling party leaders had no idea about such policies as they were busy with the anti-people activities all the time.