BJP, CPM urge ECI to weed out bogus voters

​Hyderabad: State BJP and CPM parties have complained to the Election Commission of India (ECI) and expressed their concern over large-scale bogus votes included in several Assembly segments and no action taken by the officials concerned to rectify the mistakes.

A delegation, led by BJP national executive member N Indrasena Reddy and Parliamentary party secretary Kamarsu Bala Subrahmanyam, submitted a 10-point letter to the ECI seeking directions to the State election authorities to address them immediately.

The delegation alleged that hundreds of fake house numbers were created for enrolling bogus voters in several Assembly segments. Though the issue of en masse enrollment of bogus voters have been highlighted, “Astonishingly, no action has been initiated by the EC despite repeated complaints.”

The delegation also submitted an annexure of bogus voters enrolled under Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency, Assembly constituencies of Musheerabad, Malakpet, Charminar, Yakutpura, Chandrayanagutta and Bahadurpura.

Indrasena Reddy said that the delegation told the ECI that genuine information regarding the voters' list was being deliberately hidden from general public, certain leaders and political parties. Earlier, the enrolled voters’ names were checked and cross-checked through door numbers. However, this facility has now been discontinued.

And, this action is only to protect the identity of bulk bogus voters in various Assembly constituencies, such as Musheerabad, Malakpet etc, he alleged, submitting a list of malpractices that allegedly took place in the preparation of voters’ lists.

The party demanded the ECI to take immediate steps to remove bogus voters and immediately hold a time-bound probe into all the allegations and lapses in the preparation of voter lists and take action against those responsible.

Further, the areas and polling stations where bogus votes were identified should be declared as sensitive areas and special police forces should be drawn there. CCTV cameras with rotation capacity should be setup at all polling centres along with the existing arrangements of web cameras. Also, women constables should be appointed at each polling centre to identify the faces of the Burkha-clad women.

It further asked the Commission for publishing the list of Rohingyas, and asked the EC to clarify whether the names of the bogus voters were deleted from voters list or not.

The delegation, expressing strong reservations over the functioning of the local election authorities in the State, told the ECI that it was forced to come to the conclusion that there were deliberate attempts being made by the officials to favour certain political parties in the State in the coming elections. They also highlighted how the EC officials failed to provide the acknowledgement to the newly-registered voters or changes made in the existing voters' list.

They also pointed out how the voters have been facing troubles in accessing the CEO website and enroll as new voters.

The CPM delegation, headed by State secretariat member Nandyala Narsimha Reddy and the State Committee member J Venkatesh, demanded the polling stations in every tribal thanda and the agency to enable people of the areas to vote freely without any constraints. They demanded reverification of voter lists to weed out the bogus voters.