HYDERABAD: Telangana BJP president N Ramchander Rao on Tuesday said BJP workers had submitted Form-7 applications in accordance with the rules and accused the Opposition of spreading misinformation about Form-6, Form-7 and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
Addressing a press conference at the BJP state office in Hyderabad, Ramchander Rao said Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and other INDIA bloc leaders were trying to discredit constitutional institutions, including the Election Commission, Supreme Court and President’s Secretariat, by levelling false allegations about the electoral roll revision process.
He said the mere submission of a Form-7 application was not a crime and did not result in the immediate denial of anyone’s voting rights, as deletion could take place only after due process.
Ramchander Rao recalled that Rahul Gandhi and Abhishek Manu Singhvi had alleged in 2018 that Telangana had 70 lakh bogus votes. The state BJP chief also cited claims by Congress leeders Kamal Nath and Sachin Pilot of 60 lakh and 45 lakh duplicate voters in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan respectively.
He alleged that cases were being registered under pressure from AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi and said SIR exercises had been conducted as many as 12 times between 1952 and 2014.
Responding to Congress leader Pawan Khera’s allegation that 13.3 crore votes had been deleted, Ramchander Rao said 71% of the deleted entries, or 9.5 crore, related to voters who were absent or had shifted; 20%, or 2.7 crore, were deceased voters; and 7.6%, or nearly one crore, were duplicate or multiple entries.
On Form-6, used for new voter registration, Ramchander Rao claimed the Supreme Court had clarified that the Election Commission had the power to seek an additional declaration along with the form.
“In Hyderabad’s Old City, the MIM has been winning all these years solely on the basis of fake and bogus votes. BRS and Congress colluded with them to benefit politically. Now that the voter list is being purified, the AIMIM is squirming in fear that their foundations are shaking,” he said.