HYDERABAD: Continuing his campaign against what he calls ‘vote chori’, BRS working president KT Rama Rao on Tuesday alleged that Congress candidate Naveen Kumar Yadav’s brother, Venkat Praveen Yadav, holds three votes in the Jubilee Hills constituency.
Addressing a press conference, Rama Rao accused the Congress of manipulating the electoral rolls through “conspiracies and machinations”, but asserted that the BRS would still win despite these illegal attempts. He said the party would seek legal recourse as the Election Commission of India (ECI) has failed to act on the issue.
Rama Rao pointed to irregularities in the voter list, saying that while 23,000 new names were added, 12,000 existing voters were deleted without explanation. He alleged that Congress leaders had “taken over the duties of the Election Commission of India” by distributing voter ID cards illegally — including to minors — and displaying Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and PCC working president Mahesh Kumar Goud’s photos at the event. He noted that the EC had already registered a case over the alleged distribution of fake voter IDs.
BRS teams, he said, had uncovered several instances of bogus registrations: 43 votes registered at Sanskriti Avenue Apartments, where the owner denied knowing any of the names; 23 votes linked to an 80-square-yard house; and 32 fake votes at a Congress leader’s residence. In another case, a Sircilla resident, Srinivas Reddy, found his vote registered in Jubilee Hills without his knowledge.
Rama Rao said all these entries were made “in a single day” under the Congress government’s supervision. The BRS, he added, had submitted evidence to the ECI but received no response even after 24 hours.
The party demanded a full inquiry into the 23,000 new entries, deletion of duplicate and fake votes, and action against officials involved. “Since there has been no response from the EC, we will move the Telangana High Court on Wednesday,” the Sircilla MLA said.
He also challenged senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to respond to the “vote theft” issue, saying it was ironic for Gandhi to speak about free and fair elections elsewhere while such irregularities occurred in a Congress-ruled state. “When their own candidate’s brother has three fraudulent votes, Rahul Gandhi cannot remain silent,” Rama Rao said.
Meanwhile, BRS supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao also handed over the ‘B’ Form to party candidate Maganti Sunitha on Tuesday.
