Telangana Congress senior vice president G Niranjan wrote to the Chief Election commissioner alleging that the MLAs of the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) were asking beneficiaries to show their voter IDs while applying for welfare schemes like Dalit Bandhu, Dignity Housing, and Gruhalaxmi on Monday, September 11.
“This is an attempt to manipulate voters. The BRS’s attempt is clearly to procure details of each individual beneficiary and then demand a vote from them in exchange for the benefits,” Niranjan told TNM. He also said that to date, voter IDs weren’t required as proof to obtain benefits, and this is a practice that has started now.
On September 2, it was announced that the state government would distribute a total of 11,700 double-bedroom houses to beneficiaries under the Dignity Housing Scheme in GHMC areas. MLAs of various constituencies in the state are tasked with finalising the list of 1100 beneficiaries for Dalit Bandhu, a one-time direct benefit transfer scheme of Rs 10 lakhs given to members of the Schedule Caste (SC) community. In his letter to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Vikas Raj, Niranjan alleged that beneficiaries of the scheme are being denied if they aren’t able to produce their voter IDs.
The senior Congress leader also said that as the BRS had announced its voter list in the last week of August, the candidacy of each MLA is known to the public. “The involvement of MLAs in the disbursement of the scheme poses a problem not only because they are asking for a citizen's voter IDs but also as it violates the Election Commission’s Moral Code of Conduct,” he added.
A similar complaint was floated by opposition leaders and the NGO Forum for Good Governance in October 2021. The BRS (then TRS) government had announced the new Dalit Bandhu scheme which was to be implemented on a trial basis ahead of the Huzurabad by-elections. The Chief Electoral Officer deferred the implementation until the completion of the by-election.
“This has happened several times. We witnessed the BRS’ attempts to influence elections in Huzurabad and Munugode by-polls. Attempts like this go against the policy of free and fair elections,” said Niranjan who also argued that there is a serious issue of bogus voting in Telangana and booth-level officers aren’t reverifying voter lists properly.
“We aren’t asking schemes not to be implemented. Considering how this case hinders elections, we ask that MLAs not be present when the welfare scheme amount is disbursed and voter IDs not be made compulsory,” concluded Niranjan.