HYDERABAD: Congress leader Feroz Khan has echoed Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Vote Chori’ campaign, levelling serious allegations of electoral fraud in the Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency.
Khan accused the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) of orchestrating widespread bogus voting, enabled by the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) alleged inaction.
Speaking to media persons at Gandhi Bhavan on Tuesday, Khan, who unsuccessfully contested from the Nampally Assembly constituency, stated: “Rahul Gandhi has exposed vote theft nationally, and we will do the same in Hyderabad. ‘Vote Chori’ violates the core democratic principle of one person, one vote.”
He claimed that the Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency has 6.69 lakh fraudulent votes, including deceased voters, multiple voters registered at single addresses, non-standard house numbers, shifted voters and duplicates.
He alleged that despite repeatedly urging senior ECI officials to clean up the Nampally voter list, progress has been minimal. “We caught three individuals casting fake votes, later identified as supporters of AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi,” he asserted.
He further claimed that an ECI team tasked with purifying the voter list vanished after just 10 days. “After five years of effort, only 10% of bogus votes — mostly deceased persons — were removed,” he said, drawing a parallel between AIMIM’s alleged tactics in Hyderabad and similar practices he attributed to the BJP nationwide.
In a sharp attack on Asaduddin Owaisi, whom he called the BJP’s B-Team, Khan accused him of turning the Old City into a “garbage bin” while still receiving accolades like the Best Parliamentarian Award.
Khan attributed his 2,000-vote loss in Nampally to bogus voting and intimidation by opponents.