HYDERABAD: State chief electoral officer Bhanwar Lal has issued instructions to district collectors and superintendents of police to release the YSR Congress Party leaders, who were taken into preventive custody following their party president YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s arrest by the CBI, and allow them to campaign for the bypolls. No candidate should be obstructed while campaigning for his or her party, he said. The CEO also directed the DGP not to indiscriminately detain YSRCP leaders and workers in the name of maintaining of law and order.With the arrest of Jagan Mohan Reddy in illegal assets case and the party activists staging protests across the state, the chief electoral officer said that the developments would be brought to the notice of the Election Commission.Since Jaganmohan Reddy is the star campaigner for YSRCP, his absence from campaigning will alter the level-playing field and may benefit other parties including the ruling party, it is said. Following the YSR Congress Party leaders submitted a representation to the CEO that the police were indiscriminately taking the YSRC leaders into preventive custody in the name of maintaining law and order, the CEO said that the issue had been brought to the notice of the ECI. “The ECI treats all parties equally and all parties should be given equal opportunities,’’ he said.
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