Andhra Pradesh: Deletion of names on voter list is latest flashpoint between YSRCP, TDP

The Anantapuramu district collector, who is also the district election officer (DEO), also suspended two booth-level officers (BLOs).

The irregularities

Uravakonda MLA and senior TDP leader Payyavula Keshav lodged a complaint with the Election Commission India (ECI) that 10,069 electors’ names were deleted as expired/shifted/duplicate in the year 2020 and up to November 2021, and that this was done without following due procedure.

However, a detailed inquiry by the poll authorities revealed that only 111 cases of deletion were not genuine.

The inquiry also revealed that 2,912 deletion cases across the five mandals of Uravakonda, which is under the Anantapuramu district, were made without following the prescribed procedure, due to which both the officers who acted as chief executive officers of the Anantapuramu Zilla Parishad were suspended.

“After conducting a detailed enquiry, the collector and DEO of Anantapuramu reported that out of the total 10,069 names given by the Uravakonda MLA, 4,005 names were repeated. Hence, the enquiry was taken up for 6,158 unique names,” said state CEO Mukesh Kumar Meena.

“First, the document verification of files of the 6,158 voters was conducted in the five mandals of Uravakonda. Out of these, it was reported that proper procedure was not followed for 2,912 deletions,” he added.

“After verification of the connected deletion files, door-to-door field verification of all these applications was conducted by special teams of officers to find out whether these deletions were genuine. As per the report of the collector, the deletion was not genuine for 111 cases,” said the CEO.

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As per Sections 13B and 13CC of the Representation of Peoples Act of 1950, it is the statutory responsibility of the electoral registration officer, the ERO, designated by the ECI to prepare and revise the electoral roll as per its guidelines and directions.

They also state that the officers employed in connection with the preparation, correction, and revision of the electoral roll are deemed to be on deputation to the ECI.

They are subject to the control, superintendence, and discipline of the Election Commission. The ERO is deemed the custodian of the electoral roll.

“As per detailed enquiry by the Anantapuramu collector and DEO, it was established that although 111 out of 6,158 deletions were wrongly done, the procedure as prescribed by the Election Commission was not followed in 2,912 cases spread across five mandals of the constituency,” said Mukesh Meena.

“Such an act of omission clearly exhibits a serious supervisory lapse across the entire Uravakonda Assembly Constituency and dereliction of duty by the ERO concerned while on election duty,” he added.

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TDP alleges volunteer tampering

Uravakonda YSRCP leader Y Pranay Reddy, however, found fault with MLA Keshav for misleading the poll authorities.

“I’m throwing a challenge to Payyavula Keshav. He alleged that we had influenced deletion of names of voters on a large scale. Let’s do a door-to-door survey as per the list of the ECI. There were many duplicate entries that were deleted. Also in some instances, there were a few who were dead. All those who were deleted belonged only to TDP?” said Reddy.

The TDP, however, alleged that village/ward volunteers have been accompanying the BLOs who are on door-to-door surveys.

TDP supremo Chandrababu Naidu, in one of the meetings recently held, had openly alleged that at least 10 lakh names of TDP voters across the state have been fraudulently deleted with the help of volunteers, as they are accompanying the BLOs.

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Naidu is getting ready to fly to Delhi on 28 August to meet the chief election commissioner (CEC) in person and lodge a complaint against the alleged fraudulent practice of deleting the names of TDP voters from the list.

The TDP also alleged that the YSRCP had been making bulk deletion applications.

“Form 7 applications are organised from private computer centres and logged into BLO apps in Kakinada city in an organised manner. Filing of Form 7 without adducing evidence and also by outsiders and in bulk is against the guidelines of ECI, New Delhi. Rule 17 clearly specifies that such irregular applications are to be rejected by the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO),” said MLC and TDP central party office secretary P Ashok Babu.

Form 7 is an application form for the objection of the proposed inclusion/deletion of a name in the existing electoral roll.

He wrote to the state CEO seeking him to direct the ERO of the Kakinada City Constituency, and the DEO of Kakinada, to ensure compliance to ECI guidelines in this regard.

“Unless this illegal activity is checked immediately, it will result in removal of eligible voters and deny them their voting rights,” said Ashok Babu.

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Taking turns to point the finger

The YSRCP also alleged that during the 2014 and 2019 elections, many bogus voter names were included in the list.

“In my constituency of Ongole alone at least 10,000 bogus voters were enrolled by the TDP between 2014 and 2019. Poll authorities should immediately conduct an inquiry into it and delete such names,” said former minister Balineni Srinivasa Reddy.

The TDP, in turn, is pointing its fingers at YRSCP-appointed volunteers over the deletion of names of TDP voters.

“What we have been talking about for the last month is manifesting now. Using the data collected by the volunteers, the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) has created 360-degree voter profiles of everyone in the state,” TDP spokesperson Neelayapalem Vijay Kumar told South First.

“Now, using the same volunteers influencing BLOs and other means, TDP voters are being deleted from the list. ECI should launch an in-depth investigation into this rampant malpractice taking place in Andhra Pradesh.”