Telangana Congress chief alleges voter deletions, seeks EC action

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president Mahesh Kumar Goud on Tuesday accused the Election Commission of India (ECI) of acting in a partisan manner and urged it to extend the deadline for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the State. He claimed that large-scale deletion of voters, especially from poorer sections, could disenfranchise eligible citizens.

Addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan, Mr. Goud said the Congress party was committed to protecting every citizen's voting rights. He expressed concern over the ongoing voter verification exercise, asserting that it could adversely affect a significant number of voters in Telangana if adequate safeguards were not implemented.

The TPCC chief called on the poll body to provide a detailed explanation of voter records categorised under headings such as ASBD (Absent, Shifted, Dead and Duplicate), anomalies, and unmapped entries. He alleged that 22% of votes in the State had been deleted after being classified as ASBD entries. Holding Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah politically accountable, he described the deletion as a large-scale exclusion of voters from the electoral rolls.

Mr. Goud said Telangana has approximately 3.38 crore voters, but claimed that more than 73 lakh had been deleted. He further alleged that 32.37 lakh voter records were categorised as 'unmapped' and another 60.50 lakh were flagged under 'anomalies,' together accounting for nearly 92 lakh records that had come under scrutiny. He demanded that the Election Commission clarify the status of these voters and explain the basis for such classifications.

He also questioned why about 1.6 crore voter records had been marked for scrutiny, asking under what authority eligible voters could be removed from the electoral list. Mr. Goud alleged that many people were unable to obtain enumeration forms because of a requirement linked to voting records from 2002, which could lead to the exclusion of several eligible citizens from the voters' list.

The Congress leader said his party had appointed about 35,000 Booth Level Agents (BLAs), but the Election Commission had recognised only about 13,100 of them. He questioned how discrepancies could be addressed when BLAs had submitted the required lists and receipts, yet their numbers remained unrecognised.

The Special Intensive Revision is a periodic exercise conducted by the Election Commission to update electoral rolls, including additions, deletions, and corrections. The deadline for the current SIR in Telangana has become a point of contention, with the Congress demanding more time to ensure that all eligible voters are included.