TD included lakhs of bogus voters in poll list, YSRC setting things right: Sajjala
Vijayawada: Adviser to government (public affairs) Sajjala Ramakrishna has alleged massive manipulations of the voters list by the Telugu Desam and said the YSRC would set things right.
“The Telugu Desam included bogus voters and deleted votes of YSRC sympathisers in voter lists across the state. We are now working to include the names of eligible voters in the lists,” he said and refuted allegations from TD that YSRC removed names of several genuine voters.
He affirmed that the YSRC government was seeking votes on the slogans of welfare and development and it “need not depend on bogus votes.” The Election Commission did not object to the deletion of bogus voters in Uravakonda but it objected to the procedural flaws and refuted the allegations of TD, he said.
Addressing the media here on Thursday, Ramakrishna Reddy said names of 50 lakh voters were deleted during Naidu's term as CM, mainly between 2015 and 2017. “If there were 3.68 crore voters before the 2014 elections, it fell by 2018 to 3.51 crore.
“We were alarmed at this. Until then, it was not known what irregularities the TD government committed vis-a-vis the voters lists. The YSRC fought from 2018 to 2019 to foil Chandrababu's plans.”
He said, “We are examining the lists to identify and remove the fake/bogus voters. Another field-level inspection is being done to detect bogus names.”
Recalling that YSRC unearthed the TD Seva Mitra app conspiracy, Ramakrishna Reddy said, “We immediately brought this to the attention of the Election Commission. By 2019, we were able to legally fight and get 31.97 lakh voters added to the lists. With this, the number of original voters has reached 3.98 crore. By 2023, the voters' list has 3.97 crore names.”
He said agencies like Bluefrog and IT Grids, apart from Chandrababu, were behind the Seva Mitra app. “During the TD government’s term, Chandrababau had given permission to the private company BlueFrog to manage government data. That company's IT Grids entered into a shady contract. These two developed an app called Seva Mitra and they deleted votes during the TD term.”
He said the police cases were still on, probing the role of IT Grid Ashok in getting hold of the government data, disaggregating it by a political party and linking it to the TD booth conveners. He showed Ashok and Chandrababu's discussion photos to the media.
