A delegation of the BJP comprising Andhra State President Kanna Lakshmi Narayana and the party’s national spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao met the Election Commission of India on Friday, 8 March, and submitted a complaint, asking them to take action regarding the voter deletion controversy in the state.
With the state Assembly Elections barely months away, the ruling Telugu Desam Party and the main opposition party, Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSR Congress Party, accused each other of tampering with the voter rolls.
The Chandrababu Naidu-led TDP party has been accused of collecting voter data and using it to profile voters through the party’s official app.
The YSRCP has been accused of trying to delete pro-TDP voters from the voter list by mass filing Form-7s online.
The TDP has denied the allegations, while YSRCP has claimed they have filed Form-7s to delete “bogus voters” added to the list by the TDP in the first place.
“We are submitting widespread concerns of voters and political parties in Andhra Pradesh and seek your earnest response to allay our and people’s concerns,” the complaint reportedly said, according to UNI.
‘Attempt to Subvert the Electoral Process’: GVL Narasimha Rao on the TDP
Addressing the media, GVL Narasimha Rao, lashing out at the TDP, said that this was “nothing but an attempt to subvert the entire electoral process”.
“There is also an attempt, on one hand, to delete from the voter list names of those who are considered to be supporters of other parties other than Telugu Desam Party. There is also an attempt to indulge in large scale bribing by possibly indulging in bribes transferred through bank accounts.”GVL Narasimha Rao
He further alleged that the Andhra police was functioning as an extension of the ruling TDP.
“The top functionaries of the Andhra Pradesh police, including the Director General of Police, are functioning as cardholders of top functionaries of the Telugu Desam Party. They have been condoning the cadres of the opposition parties, and they are actually harassing the workers of other parties while acting in support of the ruling Telugu Desam Party.”GVL Narasimha Rao
He then laid out four demands that they submitted to the EC on which they want action – a special revision of rolls in the state to “remove all the inaccuracies and nullify all the fraudulent efforts of the Telugu Desam Party”; asked the EC to send the state police out and put people the EC trusts; discontinue the services of Sadhikara Mitras; and take appropriate action in regard to the data theft.
“Register whatever cases and take appropriate action against those who have put the people of Andhra Pradesh at a grave risk by leaking their personal data. Election Commission had listened to our complaints, our observations and they had promised to look into all the issues that we raised with them. Some of these issues have already been in their notice.”GVL Narasimha Rao
(This piece was first published on The News Minute and has been republished in an arrangement.)
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