Fresh voter list for Gudimalkapur after Congress candidate points out irregularities

Hyderabad: The State Election Commission issued a fresh voters list for the Gudimalkapur division after Congress candidate Nagaram Venu Goud pointed out to the deletion of voters names in large numbers.

Goud said he was astonished to see that among others, the names of all 13 of his family members were shown as deleted. His name was not deleted.

On inquiry, he found that 3,370 names of voters had been deleted. Among the voters whose names were deleted from the voter list were GHMC employee Nageshwar Rao Chendrala, who is on election duty. The name of A. Shiv Raj, independent candidate in the 2016 elections, was also deleted.

Goud claimed that 680 and 711 voters of Booths No. 60 and 61 respectively were deleted, while 205 names were deleted in Booth 63. Officials were not in a position to clarifiy on what basis the names in large quantities were deleted. Voters were not given a chance to prove their habitation in the division before deleting the names.

Goud and Osman bin Mohammed Alhajiri, senior Congress leader, said that when they drew the attention of P. Pravinya, divisional commissioner, GHMC, regarding the deleted names, she asked the officials to resolve the issue immediately.

He said that fresh voters lists were handed over to them in which these names included. Goud said, “They informed us that polling booths have increased from 47 to 64 in Gudimalkapur division and voters whose names were incorporated in additional booths were deleted from the list of previous booths.” The number of booths has been increased under Covid-19 guidelines to prevent crowding.