Hyderabad: The deletion of names of seven lakh voters from the electoral rolls, which invited the wrath of Opposition parties and the attention of the Election Commission, was the key reason behind Friday's transfer of Mr Somesh Kumar from the GHMC to the tribal welfare department.
The Election Commission apparently sent out a strong message to the state government to act against the officer it would initiate action, which led to his being shifted.
Hundreds of complaints were filed with the Election Commission accusing the commissioner of removing names of voters from the Seemandhra region to ensure victory for the TRS in the upcoming GHMC elections. The commissioner also raked up a controversy over the delimitation of wards, and there were allegations that he had favoured the ruling party by disturbing the boundaries of GHMC wards.
The GHMC’s record says the names of 1.21 lakh voters from the Kukatpally circle were deleted, followed by the Khairatabad circle with 50,112 voters and Quthbullapur with 43,140.
In the Abids circle, the names of over 44,000 voters and in LB Nagar 35,310 voters were deleted. Opposition parties alleged that the GHMC had deleted most names in areas with a majority population from Seemandhra.
So far 6,30,652 lakh electors have been removed from the list under categories like non-eligible, door locked, shifted and duplicate voters in the 18 circles. There are many complaints that the GHMC staff had deleted names without inquiry mainly in areas won by the TD, Congress and BJP candidates in 2009.
While 53,980 names were identified as duplicate voters, 5,458 were found to be ineligible, 22,508 were found to be dead, 3,49,217 voters were deleted as they shifted their houses and 46,809 were removed as their doors were locked.
In Greater Hyderabad limits, 1.06 lakh voters have been enrolled twice in the electoral rolls, out of which 53,980 electors have been given notices.
