ECI team starts 3-day visit to assess poll preparedness

HYDERABAD:  A 17-member delegation of election officials, headed by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, reached Hyderabad on Tuesday as part of a three-day visit to assess poll preparedness for the Assembly elections in Telangana.

State chief electoral officer Vikas Raj received the team at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Shamshabad, following which the delegation held meetings with national and state-recognised political parties. It also held a key meeting with enforcement agencies.

During the three-day visit, the team will meet with the Chief Secretary, A. Santhi Kumari, and the Director General of Police, Anjani Kumar, to align their efforts with state administration and security agencies for the smooth conduct of elections.

On Wednesday, the focus would be on assessing poll preparedness at the grassroots level. District election officers superintendents and commissioners of police from all 33 districts of Telangana will make detailed presentations to the delegation.

On Thursday, the team will interact with state icons, persons with disabilities, and young voters to promote awareness and participation in the democratic process, which will be followed by a press conference that will be addressed by CEC Rajiv Kumar.

Congress MP N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, AICC secretary D. Sridhar Babu, and senior leader G. Niranjan on Tuesday submitted a representation to the CEC, complaining of severe irregularities in voter enrolment and discrepancies in draft electoral rolls.

They said that the model code of conduct should have been effected on the day the ruling party declared its candidates, complaining that despite being named candidates, MLAs were taking part in developmental activities as sitting legislators.

“Proving our apprehensions true, Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao and BRS MLAs are touring districts and constituencies and distributing sops, such as Dalit Bandhu, BC Bandhu, Minority Bandhu, Gruha Lakshmi, etc, to lure voters,” the Congress alleged in a letter, adding that that BRS MLAs were empowered to select beneficiaries for these schemes.

“A thorough enquiry should be made where Form-6 applications are coming abnormally in huge numbers. Though the enrolment is a continuous process, no fresh enrolment should be allowed after the announcement of the election schedule,” the Congress said in its letter to CEC.

There are complaints that data enrollers are playing mischief by adding or deleting a certain group of voters with the connivance of vested interests. “A vigilance team has to keep an eye on this sort of mischief,” it said.

“Apart from voters from other states, more particularly, there are thousands of voters from Andhra Pradesh who are having their votes both in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states, hence the deletions of demographic similar entries (DSEs) and photo similar entries (PSEs) in electoral rolls has to be taken before the polls at least to ensure that a person voted in one place is prevented from voting in other places,” it noted.