Hyderabad: Congress and BJP Monday raised the issue of alleged discrepancies and bogus voters in the Electoral Rolls in Telangana with Chief Election Commissioner Om Prakash Rawat, who began a three-day visit to the state to review preparedness for the 7 December assembly polls.
At a meeting held by Rawat, who is heading a 11-member Election Commission team, with nine recognised political parties in the state, Congress claimed there were about 68 lakh ‘discrepancies’ in the rolls released on 12 October.
Senior Congress leader Marri Shashidhar Reddy, who attended the meeting, said he conveyed the party’s stand to the EC team that the “discrepancies” should be removed. “I pointed out that there is a case pending in the high court on the issue. Now this becomes a court-monitored electoral roll. If the EC tries to go ahead and conduct polls on the basis of such flawed electoral rolls with full of discrepancies running into lakhs it will be the greatest disservice to democracy in this country,” he told PTI.
He said the Congress with the help of a team of experts had identified the ‘discrepancies’ in the voters list after the draft roll was published on 10 September.
“We still believe that there about 68 lakh discrepancies in the list released on 12 October,” Reddy added. He also alleged that the EC officials misguided the Hyderabad High Court over the discrepancies during the hearing of the petition filed by the Congress.
The petition seeking to declare as illegal the special revision of voters in the state is scheduled to come up for next hearing on 30 October. The court had earlier restrained the EC from publishing the roll but gave the go ahead on 11 October after the commission informed that claims and objections can be submitted even after the rolls were released.
Senior BJP leader Indrasena Reddy said his party made a complaint about bogus voters that are still existing in the electoral list. He also said his party suggested that ambulances and vehicles, which are used to refill cash in ATMs, should also be subjected to checks to control illegal money flow.
CPI Telangana Secretary Chada Venkat Reddy said the EC should keep tabs on the illegal money and liquor flow for free and fair elections. All nine parties, including ruling TRS, attended the meeting. This is the first visit of the top EC officials after the election schedule for the state was announced.
According to an official release issued ahead of the visit, the team would meet all the electoral officers and Superintendents of police of all the districts on Tuesday. On Wednesday, it will hold meetings with Senior officials of Income Tax Department, Railways, airport and various banks.
On the last day of its visit, the team is expected to meet Chief Secretary SK Joshi and DGP Mahendar Reddy and address the media before leaving for Delhi. The EC had on 6 October announced the election schedule for five states, including Telangana.
The polls to the 119-member Telangana assembly were originally scheduled to be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections next year, but the house was dissolved on 6 September as per a recommendation by the state cabinet.