Hyderabad: A special CBI court on Tuesday allowed YSR Congress Party chief YS Jaganmohan Reddy to cast his vote in Presidential elections to be held on July 19.

The court also allowed Mopidevi Venkata Ramana, former Excise Minister, who was also arrested by the CBI in Jagan’s alleged disproportionate assets case, to exercise his franchise.

Jagan, in his petition, urged the court to direct the CBI and the prison authorities to enable him to cast his vote on the Assembly premises on that day.

According to B Ravindranath, CBI Deputy Legal Advisor, the court ordered the prison authorities to give required protection to Jagan and also bring him back to the prison ‘immediately’.

Jagan’s counsel had earlier argued that Jagan, as a sitting MP, was a member of the electoral college and was entitled to participate in the voting as the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Rules 1974 laid down that every elector had to cast the ballot personally in the manner specified and no proxies were allowed.

The Kadapa MP had earlier sent a formal request to the Election Commission to allow him to cast his vote in Hyderabad.

Jagan, now in jail for the last 50 days in connection with the disproportionate assets case, has been out of public domain and has participated in the court proceedings through video conference facility.

Though YSR Congress Party did not declare their stand on the Presidential elections, Sabbam Hari, a Congress MP and Jagan loyalist reportedly said the party may vote for Pranab Mukherjee.

 

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