Published Oct 11, 2026 | 4:40 PM ⚊ Updated Oct 11, 2026 | 4:40 PM
Prabhakar claimed that his name had nearly been deleted from the electoral roll due to a discrepancy in his father’s name.
Telangana Transport and BC Welfare Minister Ponnam Prabhakar has challenged state BJP president N. Ramchander Rao to meet voters whose names were deleted from the electoral rolls during the controversial Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.
Prabhakar dared Rao to set a date and venue for the meeting, saying he would bring the affected voters along with their documents. He, however, warned against deploying police or arresting those who turned up to meet the BJP leader.
Prabhakar’s remarks came in response to Rao’s defence of the Election Commission of India (ECI) amid nationwide protests against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the BJP-led central government over alleged irregularities in the SIR exercise, including the large-scale deletion of voters.
Rao had dismissed the allegations against the ECI as false, prompting Prabhakar to challenge him to meet the affected voters.
Also Read: SIR: Days after mapping, Hyderabad voter says his name was deleted based on objection he never filed
Prabhakar said 13 crore voters had been deleted from electoral rolls nationwide following the SIR exercise. In Telangana, he claimed, 70 lakh voters had been deleted, including 40 lakh in Hyderabad alone. He alleged that SC, ST, BC and minority voters, whom he said were more likely to oppose the BJP, had been disproportionately affected.
Citing his own experience, Prabhakar claimed that his name had nearly been deleted from the electoral roll due to a discrepancy in his father’s name. He said poor, elderly and illiterate people, as well as daily-wage workers, were being forced to run from office to office to establish their eligibility to vote, despite possessing Aadhaar cards.
Prabhakar also referred to former Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu, who had spoken about the difficulties he faced during the SIR process in an interview with a Telugu news channel.
Prabhakar demanded that the ECI disclose the number of voters deleted, how many of them were ineligible and whether any eligible voters had been removed from the rolls by mistake. The right to vote, he said, was a democratic right guaranteed by the Constitution, not merely a form of identity. He called for errors in the electoral rolls to be corrected without disenfranchising eligible voters.
Prabhakar, along with PCC president Mahesh Kumar Goud, other state ministers, MLAs, MLCs, MPs and DCC presidents, will leave Hyderabad for Delhi this evening to participate in the INDIA bloc’s protest against the ECI on October 12.
(Edited by Fayisa CA)
