VIJAYAWADA: TDP State president K Atchannaidu, election committee chairman Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar and senior party leaders met the Election Commission of India (ECI) in New Delhi on Tuesday evening and submitted a representation seeking effective measures for the revision of electoral rolls in Andhra Pradesh.
The TDP alleged that large-scale bogus voters were included in the electoral rolls in the State.
In their representation, they stated that District Election Officers (DEOs) and Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) are not following the ECI directions to prepare error-free electoral rolls. The officials are under pressure from the ruling party, the TDP leaders alleged and urged the ECI to constitute a special task force and remove secretariat staff as Booth-Level Officers (BLOs).
They also brought to the notice of the ECI about the representation made earlier by TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu, in which he clearly mentioned the political vendetta being unleashed by the ruling YSRC against the Opposition and misuse of official machinery.
“The situation in the State has deteriorated to such an extent that DEOs and EROs are completely coerced to act as per the diktats of the ruling party, going completely against the rules in carrying out Special Summary Revision of voters’ list. The fear of witch-hunting is forcing them to give a complete go-by to the directions of the ECI,” the TDP leaders charged.
They complained that due to threats and coercion from the ruling dispensation, the EROs have not processed lakhs of death cases, duplicate entries, permanently migrated cases and voters reported as not traceable after the door-to-door verification by the TDP.
“On the other hand, the officials are forced to delete the names of genuine and surviving voters, who are known TDP sympathisers,” Atchannaidu said.
The TDP leaders listed out certain examples of how the election machinery in the State has turned spineless in utter disregard to the authority of the ECI.
The portal of the CEO has ‘prevented’ entry of details from September 17, 2023 with an ostensible and untenable reason of processing the pending applications registered till then, the TDP leaders cited.
“Though the ECI has clearly instructed that village/ward volunteers should not be involved in any of the election-related works, there are several instances where they are actively involved in the process,” the TDP leaders said and urged ECI to look into the matter.