EC seeks details of CMs Tirupati speech

HYDERABAD: After the Election Commission had taken a serious view of the utterances of chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy at an election rally in Tirupati on Friday, chief electoral officer Bhanwar Lal on Saturday directed Chittoor collector S Solomon Arokiaraj, who is also the district election officer, to submit a video CD of the chief minister’s speech and a report on the comments he had made against YSRCP chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. Kiran Kumar Reddy is alleged to have said in his address to people: “Tirupati is a holy place. You have to reject those who hurt the sentiments of Hindus. Voting for others is nothing but committing an act of sacrilege on Tirumala shrine.” Bhanwarlal said he sought the report after he had been told by the Election Commission that it wanted to examine the CD of the chief minister’s speech to ascertain whether he used religion as a tool to influence voters. Speaking to reporters at the Secretariat on Saturday, he said  the EC was very particular that political leaders during campaigning should desist from making remarks on the basis of caste, creed or religion.Bhanwar Lal said he had received two reports from the Chittoor collector, one on Congress MLAs using the TTD Administrative Office  premises for campaigning and the other on TDP leaders campaigning inside a church. The two reports will be sent to the ECI.CLEAN CHIT for  NAIDU:  The ECI gave a clean chit to TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu that he did not make any controversial statement while campaigning in Tirupati. He said that Jagan Mohan Reddy violated the TTD convention, by not signing the declaration of faith.