TPCC chief accuses EC of disenfranchising voters, seeks more time for SIR in Telangana

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president and MLC Mahesh Kumar Goud on Tuesday accused the BJP-led Union Government of weakening constitutional institutions and alleged that the Election Commission of India (ECI) was acting in a partisan manner. He also urged the Election Commission to extend the deadline for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process in Telangana and ensure that all eligible citizens were allowed to exercise their franchise.

Addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan, Mr. Goud said the Congress was committed to protecting the voting rights of every citizen and expressed concern over the Election Commission’s ongoing voter verification exercise. He claimed that the process could adversely affect a large number of voters in Telangana if adequate safeguards were not put in place.

Maintaining that the Congress would continue its efforts to safeguard voting rights, he called on the poll body to provide a detailed explanation of voter records marked under categories such as ASBD, anomalies and unmapped entries.

The TPCC chief alleged that 22% of votes had been deleted after being classified as “Absent, Shifted, Dead and Duplicate” (ASBD) entries and held Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah politically accountable for what he described as large-scale deletion of voters, particularly among poorer sections.

Referring to voter data in Telangana, Mr. Goud said the State has about 3.38 crore voters and claimed that more than 73 lakh votes had been deleted. Mr. Goud alleged that large-scale discrepancies had surfaced in the electoral rolls, claiming that 32.37 lakh voter records were categorised as “unmapped” and another 60.50 lakh were flagged under the “anomalies” category. Together, these entries account for nearly 92 lakh voter records that have come under scrutiny, he said, and urged the Election Commission to clarify the status of these voters and explain the basis on which such classifications were made.

He demanded that the Election Commission explain why about 1.6 crore voter records had been marked for scrutiny and questioned the authority under which eligible voters could be removed from electoral rolls.

Mr. Goud further alleged that many people were unable to obtain enumeration forms because of a requirement linked to voting records from 2002. As a result, he said, several eligible citizens faced the risk of being excluded from the voters’ list.

The Congress leader said the party had appointed about 35,000 Booth Level Agents (BLAs), while the Election Commission had recognised only about 13,100 of them. He questioned how discrepancies could be pointed out despite BLAs submitting the required lists and receipts.