Opposition voices against early polls

​Hyderabad:  The Opposition parties on Tuesday lodged a strong protest against early elections in Telangana with the Election Commission of India (ECI) and demanded extension of the last date for the revision of electoral rolls in view of the festival season in Telangana. The EC has announced recently the schedule for the second summary revision of the electoral rolls. The final electoral rolls will be published on October 8.      

A Congress delegation led by the party senior leader M Shashidhar Reddy demanded the official team of the Election Commission visiting the state on a two-day official tour to explain the reasons behind the deletion of nearly 20 lakh votes in the recent drive.         

The Congress leader strongly objected to the Commission’s decision to cut down the deadline for the completion of the revision of electoral rolls to four weeks from the earlier four-month schedule. He alleged that the TRS included bogus voters in a huge number in Hyderabad. Reddy also took strong exception to the statement made by TRS chief K Chandrashekhar Rao on the election schedule at a recently held press conference.  He expressed serious doubts on the sincerity of the Commission in maintaining secrecy in the discharge of the duties. 

The BJP delegation led by senior leader Indrasena Reddy asked the Commission the current status of the voters in the seven mandals which were merged with Andhra after the bifurcation, but they still remain part of three Assembly constituencies in Telangana. 

The BJP demanded the EC not to issue election notification without addressing the issue.  The BJP team also wanted the EC to extend the deadline for enrollment of voters by another 15 days keeping in mind people being busy on Moharrum  on October 21 and  Ganesh Chaturthi and Idols Immersion from September 13 to 23. 

The CPM delegation, led by DG Narasimha Rao, and CPI team headed by Ch Venkat Reddy questioned the Election Commission for the conduct of early elections in Telangana by incurring crores of public money as expenditure. The Left party leaders demanded the Commission to hold the elections only after completing the revision of the electoral rolls as per the earlier schedule under which the final electoral rolls will be announced in December. TRS leader and MP B Vinod requested the Commission to complete the official process to the finalization of the electoral rolls as per the fresh schedule and hold elections at the earliest.  

AIMIM delegation led by party senior leader Akabaruddin Owaisi requested the Commission to take up a drive and remove fake votes in Hyderabad. BSP leader Ellanna demanded the EC to make arrangements for the smooth functioning of VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trails) machines at the time of voting.