VIJAYAWADA: Even as a PIL filed in the High Court alleges that there are over 52 lakh bogus and ineligible voters in the State, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) RP Sisodia clarified that there might be around 25.47 lakh suspicious voters in Andhra Pradesh. The CEO released the list of district-wise suspicious voters on Tuesday.
While Anantapur (3.55 lakh) and Chittoor (3.42 lakh) districts have the dubious distinction for having the highest suspicious voters, Kadapa has the least number of (91,377) doubtful voters.
Speaking exclusively to TNIE, the CEO said, “We have identified around 25 lakh cases of suspicious/doubtful votes. However, we need to do a thorough field level verification once again to ascertain if they are indeed bogus.”
When asked about the PIL filed in the HC, Sisodia said they would file a report before the bench explaining the efforts being taken by booth level officers to eliminate bogus voters. “All suspicious voters need not necessarily be considered bogus. We are working towards clearing all the anomalies. The final and consolidated electoral list is likely to be released in a month’s time,” he said.
For the record, there are a total of 3.5 crore who have enrolled as voters in the State. Of them, the CEO identified 25.47 lakh suspicious votes due to anomalies like duplication of names, electoral photo identify card (EPIC) number, address, age and others.