Serious irregularities alleged in voter lists

Charminar: Before the final publication of the of electoral rolls for the by-election of the Dabeerpura ward on October 5, the Opposition during a meeting with the GHMC officials alleged that the Civic body failed to clear discrepancies and anomalies from the final list, even after taking up revision on several occasions.

Officially, the number of voters in the ward, whose election is going to be held within a few days, is at 49,445. But, when the Opposition leaders representing TDP, Congress and BJP brought it up to the notice of the officials, they failed to provide any clear answers during the meeting.

"There could be thousands of bogus votes in the ward, as most of those names listed have moved out of the constituency, duplication of names remain intact and even the names of the deceased have not been removed," said Mohammed Ahmed, TDP Greater Hyderabad vice president of minority cell.

Speaking to The Hans India, Ahmed said that even though the GHMC assured that the election would be conducted on ballot paper this time, the result may end up in favour of a single party, which enjoys clout in the Old City. According to him, there are over 15,000 bogus votes owing to various reasons and were not cleared from the updated list.

"During the meeting, the officials failed to answer to this. All I had to say that rather than taking up the entire exercise, the party which holds sway in the area should be declared unanimously," the leader quipped.

Moreover, objection was also raised during the meeting over division of booth in half, but placed at a single place. For instance, a booth comprising of 1,300 votes has been divided into two with 650 each, but placed in the same school building and in congested area. It is feared that this would only help the party, which had won earlier.

The by-election is a result of former Corporator from the Dabeerpura Riyaz ul Hassan Effendi bagging the MLC seat earlier this year. When The Hans India tried to contact the Deputy Zonal Commissioners present in the meeting, they failed to respond.