Vijayawada: The YSR Congress said on Sunday that it would concentrate on weeding out the names of “bogus, duplicate and fake voters” from electoral rolls so as to ensure a repeat landslide victory for the party in the assembly and Lok Sabha elections.
Notably, the main opposition Telugu Desam has also said it would do this. Both the parties lodged complaints with the Election Commission about the presence of large-scale fake induction of names into the voters lists.
The YSRC started filing complaints about “bogus, duplicate and fake names in the lists before the 2019 elections. It filed numerous complaints with ECI and several names were deleted in certain segments. Still the party alleges the inclusion of nearly 59 lakh bogus, duplicate and fake voters by TD in a majority of the segments. It also claims that these votes play a major role in the win or defeat of candidates with simple majorities.
Chief minister Jagan Reddy himself went to Delhi and lodged a complaint with ECI against the sway of bogus, duplicate and fake voters and “deletion of YSRC supporters from the lists by former TD government through use of the SevaMitra app developed by IT Grids, Bluefrog etc by the Chandrababu Naidu-led party.
Responding to the complaints, the ECI deleted nearly 30 lakh names from the voters lists during the 2019 elections.
Now, the YSRC is alleging the presence of another five to ten thousand bogus names “that were included in the voters lists by the TD in every segment in recent times. The chief minister alerted the party’s rank and file to have a close scrutiny of the lists. They found large-scale inclusion of bogus, duplicate and fake names, the YSRC claimed.
A delegation of MPs and MLAs led by Vijayasai Reddy lodged a complaint with EC on August 28, seeking deletion of 59 lakh “bogus, duplicate and fake” names of voters in 175 assembly constituencies. TD chief Chandrababu along with his MPs and party leaders also lodged a complaint on the same day alleging that nearly 20 lakh bogus voters had been included in the lists by the YSRC and “illegal deletion” of names of TD supporters from these lists.
The YSRC leaders complained that people of adjacent states like Tamil Nadu have been registered as voters in Kuppam etc, who would come on the polling day and cast their votes.
YSRC general secretary Sajjala Ramakrishna said Jagan Reddy as YSRC president called upon the party’s rank and file to identify the bogus, duplicate and fake names in the list in every segment. The party would file Form-7 with booth level officers to seek the removal of those illegal voters.
He said, “This is worrying Chandrababu, whose party included lakhs of fake names in the lists. Before the 2019 elections, the TD with the help of the party’s Sevamitra and other applications deleted 50 lakh votes of YSRC supporters. The EC, responding to Jagan Reddy’s complaints with proof, included 30 lakh of these voters in the lists.
Ramakrishna Reddy said the YSRC never tried to delete genuine votes but is concentrating on deletion of bogus, duplicate and fake names.
Ministers Merugu Nagarajuna and Adimulapu Suresh said the voters’ lists are available to all. Naidu and TD leaders can check them and go to EC or courts if they find any illegalities by the YSRC, the ministers said.
Meanwhile, Naidu also alerted the TD rank and file against likely manipulations by the YSRC in the voters lists like removal of TD supporters’ names.
