Shabbir Ali in the dock for wrong PR

TNN / Mar 5, 2006, 02:55 IST

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Will the EC force information and public relations minister Shabbir Ali to resign from the Andhra Pradesh cabinet?

HYDERABAD/VISAKHAPATNAM: Will the Election Commission (EC) force information and public relations minister Shabbir Ali to resign from the Andhra Pradesh cabinet?
This is the question that is being asked in the corridors of power even as strenuous efforts are being made by the powers that be in the state to save the minister.
Shabbir Ali is a confidante of chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy.The EC has issued notice to Shabbir Ali for violating the model code of conduct in the run-up to the byelection to the Visakhapatnam (Visakha-1) Assembly seat and has given the minister time till March 8 to furnish a reply.
In the meanwhile, sources say, the EC has procured "clinching evidence" that the minister made a policy announcement while addressing a public meeting at Kotaveedhi junction in Vizag on February 16 while addressing a public rally.

The byelection has already been countermanded, for other violations by both the Congress and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP). The charges include open payment of cash to voters. The election would be held again on March 25.
At the contentious public meeting, in what is seen as an attempt to garner votes, Shabbir Ali declared that the properties of Madina dargah would be utilised for the welfare of Muslims.
A large contingent of members of the press were present when Shabbir Ali��who also holds power and coal portfolios�� spoke at the public meeting. The dargah which had more than 5000 acres of land is now left with very little estate.

Much of the land was sold to the NTPC during the TDP regime and given away to the Wakf Board. Visakha-I Assembly constituency returning officer M B Kameswara Rao told the Sunday Times of India that "as per the model code of conduct, no policy decisions should be announced by the people's representatives and hence the same violation by the minister has been brought to the notice of district collector Anil Kumar Singhal."
Singhal in turn is said to have forwarded the note to the Election Commission. The EC has gathered clinching evidence against the information minister including video footage where he is seen making the said announcement.
Based on this evidence, the Election Commission is pressing for action against Shabbir Ali. Sources said the EC is of the view that the information minister should be dropped from the cabinet for this poll violation.
The EC will press for its case after the minister concerned replies to the notice served on him, they added. The byelection to Visakha-I seat was caused by the demise of Congress legislator Dronamraju Satyanarayana.
While the Congress fielded Satyanarayana's son Dronamraju Srinivasa Rao, the TDP has pitted Sheikh Abdul Rehman, a popular local doctor.
The Congress had won this seat in 2004 by a margin of 17,500 votes and the good work done by Satyanarayana during his 20-month stint as MLA coupled with the 'sympathy' factor should have made this election a cakewalk for Srinivasa Rao and the Congress.
But the events that unfolded in the run-up to the Feb. 19 bypoll seem to portray a different picture. The Visakha-I constituency has a total of 1,32,586 voters.
Despite the city being known for its low crime rate, as many as 68 of the total 130 booths have been declared trouble-prone and another five as hypersensitive.

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