The Hyderabad high court on Monday admitted a bunch of petitions challenging the dissolution of the Telangana assembly by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi government on September 6, nine months ahead of the completion of its term.
Former minister and Congress member from Gadwal in the dissolved assembly DK Aruna, former MLA Komireddy Ramulu, advocates Shashank Reddy and Rapolu Bhaskar and others moved the high court challenging the unilateral decision of the TRS cabinet headed by chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. The high court posted the cases to Wednesday for hearing.
Speaking to reporters, Aruna said she had challenged the procedure adopted by the TRS government in dissolving the assembly. “We were the MLAs in the dissolved the House and we were not even informed before taking the decision. How can the cabinet take the decision unilaterally without convening the state assembly?” she asked.
Stating that the KCR government had deprived her Constitutional right as an elected representative nine months ahead of the completion of her tenure, Aruna wondered how the government could cancel her assembly membership so abruptly without even informing her. “The government should have convened the assembly session and informed the members,” the former minister said.
She also pointed out that lakhs of youth who would be turning 18 years by January had now lost their opportunity to exercise their right to franchise. “As per the original cut-off date fixed by the Election Commission of India, enrolment of new voters could be done till January 1, 2019. At least 20 lakh youth should have enrolled as voters by then,” she argued.
{{/usCountry}}She also pointed out that lakhs of youth who would be turning 18 years by January had now lost their opportunity to exercise their right to franchise. “As per the original cut-off date fixed by the Election Commission of India, enrolment of new voters could be done till January 1, 2019. At least 20 lakh youth should have enrolled as voters by then,” she argued.
{{/usCountry}}Meanwhile, the EC authorities submitted a counter-affidavit in the high court stating that the date for publication of final voters list had been postponed to October 12 by which time all the discrepancies could be corrected. “We shall go ahead with the election process with the revised list,” it said.
The EC has announced schedule for the assembly elections in Telangana on Saturday. As per the schedule, the notification will be issued on November 12 and the last date for withdrawal of nominations is November 22. The polling will be held on December 7 and the counting would be done on December 11.