Daggubati casts rejection vote in RS polls

After its introduction for the first time by the Election Commission of India, Congress senior leader Daggubati Venkateshwar Rao utilised the "rejection vote" in the Rajya Sabha elections held here on Friday.

Justifying his decision, Daggubati told reporters that he utilised "None Of The Above" option to reject all the candidates who in the fray for the six Rajya Sabha seats. He said he had informed Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and PCC president Botsa Satyanarayana before casting his vote.

Daggubati said that the MLAs cast their vote as per the guidelines of their High Command and not by their choice. He said all the MLAs (from Seemandhra) had resigned from their posts December 9, 2009, announcement on Telangana. Later, the MLAs were asked to abide by the dicates of the Congress High Command. "The leaders who have guided us in these activities, have now come before us candidates. I felt very bad about all this and decided to reject all candidates,” he said.

Daggubati expressed regret that the Congress High Command took a decision in favour of bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh without consulting the Seemandhra people.