The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) activists staged a demonstration in front of the Prakasam Bhavan here on June 30 (Friday), alleging that the ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) was including bogus voters in the electoral rolls in its attempt to win the Assembly elections ‘by hook or crook‘.
The TDP activists also submitted a memorandum in this regard to Prakasam Collector and District Election Officer A.S. Dinesh Kumar.
Addressing the protestors, TDP Andhra Pradesh vice-president D. Janardhana Rao said that the fear of losing the 2024 elections had gripped the YSRCP. “Hence, the ruling party, in collusion with some officials, is deleting the names of TDP supporters from electoral rolls. “Internal surveys conducted by the YSRCP have revealed that the YSRCP might face a defeat by more than 15,000 votes,” he claimed.
“A verification of electoral rolls done by the TDP has found that a thatched hut has as many as 147 voters. Even as the names of deceased persons have been removed from the list of pensioners, their names still figure in the voters’ list in different Assembly segments including Kanigiri,” said Mr. Janardhana Rao.
The TDP leader also said that there were instances when the name of a family head was registered in one division and his wife’s name was found in another division and that of their children in yet another division of the city due to the fault of the officials, he said and wanted the voters to verify whether their names were in the electoral rolls in the divisions where they lived.
TDP MLA Dola Bala Veeranjenya Swamy said that the election officials should realise that they must work impartially while preparing the final voters’ list.
TDP Ongole Lok Sabha unit president N. Balaji said the Praksam district administration should ensure that village and ward volunteers were not involved in the enrolment of voters. ‘‘We will produce the video evidence of misuse of volunteers by the YSRCP at the grassroots level,” he added.
In response to the memorandum, Mr. Dinesh Kumar told the TDP leaders that a door-to-door verification of the electoral rolls would be done in July. “Any discrepancy in the voters’ list should be brought to the notice of the booth-level staff during the exercise and corrections will be carried out in the list accordingly,” he said.
