EC urged to extend date for graduate voter registration

Mangalagiri: The election to the graduate constituencies of Guntr-Krishna and West Godavari-East Godavari might be conducted in the last week of February or the first week of March, said former MLC AS Ramakrishna.

Addressing the media along with MLC Parchuri Ashok Babu at the TDP headquarters here on Tuesday, he said that the last date for voter registration is Wednesday and the registration is a bit slow.

Hoping that the registration will pick up on the last day and reach 4 lakhs finally, he said that former minister Alapati Rajendra Prasad in Guntur-Krishna districts and Perabattula Rajasekhar from East and West Godavari on behalf of NDA are contesting the MLC election.

Ramakrishna exuded confidence that both candidates would certainly win the forthcoming elections. So far 2.26 lakh voters in Krishna and Guntur districts and 1.44 lakh voters in East and West Godavari got registered. He attributed the low registration to the malfunction of the server. He suggested to the Election Commission to extend the date for registration of votes to November 18. He appealed to the leaders and activists of TDP, Jana Sena and BJP along with the graduates in the region to register their votes by Wednesday evening.

Later, MLC Parchuri Ashok Babu said that the TDP leaders had already appealed to the Election Commission to extend the date for registration of graduate voters. Recalling that the TDP candidates won the Graduate elections while in the Opposition and the same would continue this time also. He said that due to the floods in Vijayawada graduate voter registration was delayed. Ashok Babu appealed to the officials not to harass the voters during the verification. He appealed to the graduates across the four erstwhile districts to register as voters by Wednesday evening. Recalling the importance of the Legislative Council, he said that the three-capital bill was defeated in the Council. The registration must reach four-lakh in each and every constituency.