Delete names of voters in AP from TS list: Cong to EC

Hyderabad: The Congress party on Friday urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) to delete the names of voters who have voted in Andhra from the voters list of Telangana as no one is allowed to have votes in both the states.

The Congress party’s senior leader G Niranjan brought to the notice of the ECI that the voting had decreased in Lok Sabha compared to the Assembly elections held in November last year. Niranjan said that the elections to Assembly in Telangana were held on November 30 and total votes polled were 2,32,59,256 out of 3,26,02,793 total voters. Whereas in Lok Sabha elections 2024 held on May 13 the total votes polled were 2,20,24,806 out of 3,32,16,348 total voters.

The figures shows the polling was less than the Assembly elections and 12,34,450 were polled less in Lok Sabha elections. About 12 lakhs voters were enrolled after the Assembly elections 2023 and about 8 lakhs voters were deleted. There is a net increase of about 4 lakhs voters after the assembly elections. Ultimately it means about 16,50,000 less voting took place in the Lok Sabha elections. “We request the ECI to analyse in detail about the reasons for this to find out whether it is because of inclusion of dead voters, duplicate voters, voters having votes in 2 places,” said Niranjan.

The Congress leader pointed out that during the 2023 assembly elections, the voters who had their vote both in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh states remained in Telangana and used their franchise in Telangana as there were no elections in Andhra Pradesh. It was witnessed in Telangana prior to two days of Lok Sabha polls that about 15 lakh people left for their home towns in Andhra to cast their votes.

“As per EC rules, a voter should have their vote in only one place otherwise, they would be liable for a criminal case. The large number of this sort of discrepancies affects the percentage of polling also. In the next few months there will be Gram Panchayat, ZPTC/MPTC and other local bodies elections in Telangana where the present voters list will be the base for conducting the elections.

The State Election Commission adopts the voters list provided by the Election Commission for conducting these elections. Hence the ECI should delete the voters who have used their franchise in Andhra Pradesh,” he said.