Several years before Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accused Election Commission of India (ECI) of colluding with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in ‘stealing’ votes, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu had made similar allegations in his state.
Chandrababu Naidu, who heads the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) is now the BJP ally in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
In March 2019, Naidu, then CM of Andhra Pradesh, alleged that names of as many as eight lakh TDP voters were deleted from the electoral rolls. Naidu’s TDP was in power in the state in 2019 and the ruling party had engaged in virtual war of words with the main opposition YSR Congress over the contentious issue.
‘They used Form-7 for the purpose’
“Eight lakh TDP votes have been removed. They used Form-7 for the purpose. Looks like they may even remove my vote tomorrow,” Naidu said in a post on X (then twitter) on March 4, 2019 in Telugu.
Naidu had then slammed the-then political strategist Prashant Kishor, who was advising the Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) and managing his campaign.
Remember, names of others or self can only be removed from the electoral rolls through Form 7 applications, scrutiny, ground verification by Booth Level Officers, and a final order by the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO). Both the voter and the applicant have the right to be heard before any deletion is approved.
The Naidu-led TDP government in Andhra Pradesh had constituted a Special Investigation Team headed by an Inspector General of Police to probe into the “en masse” submission of form-7 applications and 400 FIRs had been registered in various police stations across the state on the issue, news reports said.
State Chief Electoral Officer Gopala Krishna Dwivedi had, however, maintained in response to Naidu’s charge in 2019 that the poll panel had permitted the authorities to delete only 40,000 voters in 74 assembly constituencies and only 10,000 have been deleted so far.
A month after Naidu’s allegation, assembly elections were held in Andhra Pradesh. The YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) won the election in a landslide, winning 151 of the 175 seats, with the incumbent Telugu Desam Party (TDP)-led by Naidu winning just 23.
Questiions over SIR too
Recently, the TDP, the BJP’s second-largest ally in the NDA, had raised doubts about the contentions Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise conducted in Bihar. The Andhra Pradesh’s ruling party sought clarity from the EC on ‘the scope’ of the SIR of electoral rolls conucted in poll-bound Bihar and likely to be replicated nationwide.
The TDP said that the Election Commission of India’s exercise should ideally be conducted “not within six months” of any major election and that it should be made clear that it is ‘not related to citizenship verification’.
Most of the opposition parties have objected to Election Commission’s SIR, with some knocking the Supreme Court’s door.
In a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on 15 July, by TDP parliamentary party leader Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayalu and signed by five other party leaders, the Andhra Pradesh’s ruling party said that the “scope of the SIR must be clearly defined and must be limited to electoral roll recorrection and inclusion”.
Flagged deletions earlier too
Even while TDP was in opposition, Naidu in Andhra Pradesh, in December 2023, wrote a letter to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of the state, complaining about several alleged irregularities in the voters’ list. Naidu blamed the YSRCP-run state government for the irregularities and alleged that the prescribed procedure for the enrolment of voters is not being followed.
Even in 2004, when he was Chief Minister, Naidu had launched ab attack on the Election Commission over the alleged deletion of names of eligible voters from the electoral rolls. Naidu had alleged that the EC is “more responsive to unfounded complaints of opposition parties, specially about the so-called irregularities in electoral rolls”.
Last year, ahead of the Andhra Pradesh assembly election, Naidu joined the BJP-led NDA. The TDP-led alliance, won the election in a landslide, winning 164 of the 175 seats with Naidu’s party winning 135 out of 144 contested seats. The incumbent YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) only won 11 seats. Naidu became the chief minister for the third time
What did Rahul Gandhi say?
In his fresh allegations on September 18, Leader of Oppostion (LoP) in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi cited details of alleged attempts to delete votes from Karnataka’s Aland constituency in the run-up to the 2023 assembly polls. He also gave the example of Maharashtra’s Rajura constituency, where he claimed voters were added fraudulently using automated software.
Gandhi, who hs been leading the ‘vote chori’ campaign for quite some time now, accused the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of ‘protecting’ those who are ‘destroying; Indian democracy by refusing to share technical details of persons behind an attempt to delete names of voters from the electoral rolls of an Assembly seat in Karnataka.
How did EC respond?
The Election Commission of India responded with a five-point rebuttal denying Rahul Gandhi’s allegations. The poll panel said no votes can be deleted online, “as misconceived by Rahul Gandhi”. Portals and apps only allow applications to be filed, which then go through scrutiny.
In 2019, Naidu claimed, ‘Eight lakh TDP votes have been removed.’
In its point number 4, the poll panel, however, admitted to ‘unsuccessful attempts made for deletion of electors in Aland Assembly Constituency’ in 2023.
“In 2023, certain unsuccessful attempts were made for the deletion of electors in the Aland Assembly Constituency and an FIR was filed by the authority of ECI itself to investigate the matter,” the poll panel said.
About the Author
