Telangana Minister Warns Against Vote Deletions Amid Electoral Roll Revision

Alleging that the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls is being used as a cover to delete votes of political opponents, Telangana minister Ponnam Prabhakar on Monday, June 29, urged citizens across Telangana to cooperate with Booth Level Officers (BLO) and ensure their names remain on the voter list. Speaking at an awareness programme held across four mandals in Husnabad constituency of Siddipet district on Monday, June 29, Prabhakar said nearly one crore votes across the state were currently in a “neutral” or unverified state, with Husnabad constituency alone accounting for 61,000 such entries. “This government has undertaken the process of removing votes against them in the name of voter registration amendment,” he alleged, calling on Congress workers, village-level volunteers and every citizen who believed in democracy to step forward and ensure no eligible voter was struck off the rolls. The minister acknowledged that special voter registration amendments were not without precedent, pointing out that a similar exercise had been carried out in 2002. However, he said, the earlier exercises had been conducted with the intent of ensuring no eligible voter lost their franchise, whereas the current drive, he claimed, was driven by partisan motives. Prabhakar drew a distinction between rural and urban areas, saying that while procedural gaps were visible in villages, he suspected a more deliberate attempt in urban pockets to target votes that were likely to go against the ruling dispensation. He urged every voter to ensure they provided BLOs or Booth Level Agents (BLA) visiting their homes with two photographs and completed the necessary documentation. “Not a single eligible voter should miss a single vote,” he said, adding that the Congress was running constituency- and booth-level awareness drives across the state to that end.