The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) on June 28, Wednesday, complained to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Andhra Pradesh against the ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) for allegedly “enrolling bogus voters on a massive scale” across the state. In his letter to the CEO, TDP supremo and former AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said that several representations have been submitted to the Election Commission of India (ECI) with regard to alleged bogus votes enrollment, deletion of eligible voters, enrolling several votes on the same door number, allocation of different booths to voters belonging to same family, and other related issues. “However, there appears to be no action from your side as the enrollment of bogus votes is going unabated in the state of Andhra Pradesh,” he wrote.
In his letter, Chandrababu Naidu also claimed that several bogus voters are enrolled with "single/same door number", and asked the CEO to ascertain that the genuineness of all such cases should be verified. He also sought the regular removal of names of people who have passed away, and added that appropriate and clear written directions should also be given with regard to the migrant voters.
“It is learnt that voters without Aadhaar link are being removed in order to show better percentage in terms of voter linkage with Aadhaar. Instead of arbitrarily removing such votes, information may be provided to political parties so as to enable them to motivate voters to link with Aadhaar. Details of the 10.23 lakh votes deleted recently due to duplication and double entries may be provided to the political parties,” the TDP chief said.
After submitting the letter to the CEO, TDP AP unit president Kinjerapu Atchen Naidu told media persons that Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy has “created a record of sorts in enrolling bogus votes thus achieving the eighth wonder of the world.” “We have submitted all the details, along with evidence, to the CEO, Mr Mukesh Kumar Meena, and demanded proper action on this after conducting an inquiry,” Atchen Naidu said.
Ahead of Member of Legislative Council elections this year, Chandrababu Naidu had written another letter to the ECI raising similar allegations. However, CEO Mukesh Kumar Meena responded that enough time was already given to the parties to raise objections.
The party leaders have been actively making allegations regarding voter deletion in their constituencies. On June 13, Visakhapatnam East MLA met District Collector A Mallikarjuna and complained that 40,000 voters were deleted from the list without prior notice. Former Tadikonda MLA Tenali Shravan Kumar claimed that village volunteers are carrying out the directives of YSRCP leaders and that BLOs are not going to the wards to verify the voter list.