Will take call on BRS plaint today: EC to HC

HYDERABAD: Election Commission has informed Telangana high court that it will take a decision on Friday on a complaint lodged by BRS, which wants all political parties to adhere to the model code of conduct (MCC), the provisions of the Representation of the People (RP) Act and that they should not make wild allegations of phone tapping against the party and its leaders without evidence.
The party, through its general secretary M Srinivas Reddy, had filed two separate petitions in the high court. The first one wants EC to control the political rivals, while the other wants HC to direct YouTube, Google and various news channels to remove the wild allegations levelled against party's working president KT Rama Rao in respect of the phone tapping issue.

The first plea came up before a bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice J Anil Kumar, which sought to know from EC counsel Avinash Desai the action it took on the April 28 representation made by BRS to EC to restrain political parties in this regard, on Thursday. The senior counsel replied that the authorities had examined the representation and they would take a decision on Friday. The bench then disposed of the plea.
BRS in its plea brought to the notice of the court how EC gave a warning to state minister Konda Surekha for making phone tapping allegations against KTR without any basis. It also narrated instances of various political parties defaming BRS and its leaders on this issue.
The second plea came up before Justice NV Shravan Kumar, who referred the matter to the CJ because he did not have the information technology subject with him. The registry posted the case before Justice CV Bhaskar Reddy who will hear the matter on Friday. In the second plea, the party wants Google and YouTube to play the restraining role apart from deleting the existing material from them. Model Code of Conduct applies to them as well and hence they should adhere to the code, it said. It wants various TV channels too to refrain from defaming the BRS in respect of phone tapping which is still at the stage of investigation.