BSP candidate Rajasekhar deposits security money in coins

SRIKAKULAM: It was a different kind of test and embarrassment for the staff at the nomination center for the Srikakulam Lok Sabha Constituency as the Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) candidate deposited 40% of the security money in coins. He prepared to pay the total security money of Rs. 25,000 in coins, but the staff requested that it would be difficult for them to count so many coins.

Nayudigari Rajasekhar, one of the main priests at the famous Lord Siva Temple in Srimukhalingam in Srikakulam district, deposited Rs. 10,000 in coins, which he got as ‘Sambhavana’ from devotees during Maha Sivaratri Day and other auspicious occasions.

It is recalled that nominations center staff faced a similar test when Rajasekhar deposited Rs. 10,000 in coins during the previous general elections while he contested for the Narasannapeta Assembly Constituency as an independent candidate in 2019. During the North Andhra Graduates MLC elections, he again deposited Rs. 10,000 in coins as security money while filing his nomination as an Independent candidate in 2023. Interestingly, he filed a nomination for the President of India post in 2022.

He brought coins worth Rs. 25,000 as a security deposit. “When I showed them, they said it would be difficult for them to count. But there is no rule to refuse coins as security money. I reduced the number of coins and paid Rs. 10,000 in coins and the remaining Rs. 15,000 in notes,” he said.

He said that he got the money as Sambhavana in the temple’s Antaralayam during the auspicious day of Maha Sivaratri and these coins would bring good development to the district with Lord Siva’s blessings.

However, it took the staff nearly two hours to count the coins, comprising 500 coins in the denomination of Rs. 1 (500), 3275 coins in the denomination of Rs. 2 (6550), and 590 coins in the denomination of Rs. 5 (2950). He submitted the nomination papers to the Returning Officer and District Collector Dr. Manazir Jeelani Samoon, who assigned the counting of coins process to Assistant RO M. Ganapati Rao. Five persons were engaged to count the coins.