DNA Correspondent

Hyderabad: There seems to be no end to the Congress-Election Commission (EC) clash in Andhra Pradesh. Barely hours after officials convinced the EC via video evidence that YSR Reddy did not promise a Rs15-lakh pension scheme at an election rally at Khanapur, Adilabad, last week, the poll watchdog has pulled up the chief minister for holding the meeting on a government school premises.

The EC has also shot off notices to at least three other ministers in the Reddy cabinet for various instances of poll code violation.

Home minister K Jana Reddy and irrigation minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah have been pulled up for demolishing the wall of a private school without permission to hold a public meeting in Warangal on May 17.

Likewise, finance minister K Rosaiah has been put on notice for announcing that several more essential commodities would be soon brought under the public distribution system to benefit the poor in the state.

The commission had last week taken action against a few Nizamabad district officials for ignoring the poll code. The EC observed that not just MLAs but ministers as well were flouting the code ahead of the May 29 elections in the state.

Meanwhile, in an interesting episode, Congress MLC Pulla Padmavati stunned everybody at the Waranal meeting of the party held by Jana Reddy when she appealed to people to defeat Konda Surekha, the party candidate for the Lok Sabha seat.

When the home minister tried to correct her, she urged him to allow her to at least appeal for votes for hand, the Congress symbol, leaving the audience in splits.

Source : DNA