Even as the official machinery is fully geared up to prepare a clean voters’ list, several factors have apparently allowed errors to creep into the list.
By chairing meetings with the representatives of political parties regularly, Collector K. Venkataramana Reddy has accommodated scores of claims and counter claims to cleanse the list.
Chandragiri constituency in Tirupati district has hogged the limelight for dubious reasons. Of the 68,235 applications from new voters (Form 6) received for all the seven constituencies in Tirupati district, Chandragiri constituency alone got 28,791, accounting to nearly half of the numbers.
In contrast to the 28,791 applications received for Chandragiri, the number received for the remaining constituencies like Tirupati, Srikalahasti, Sullurpeta, Satyavedu, Venkatagiri and Gudur are in four-digit figures only, raising eyebrows.
The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) representative Pulivarthi Venkata Mani Prasad (Nani) raised the issue with the Election Commission of India (ECI) and brought it to the notice of the Collector.
Another complaint is the ‘random’ rationalisation of polling stations. In fact, the P.S. No.104 in his native village was removed during the COVID-19 pandemic pandemic and was not revived again. “Pulivarthivaripalle had polling station No.93 in 2009, No.87 in 2014 and No.104 in 2019, but was removed later, forcing the voters to travel more than 4 km to reach K. Vaddipalle, against the ECI norms”, Mr. Nani complained. The Collector said a new polling station would certainly be created if the voter strength crossed 1400.
Panic button on fake votes
The Chandragiri TDP leaders pressed the panic button by accusing the ruling party of adding nearly 30,000 fake votes during the last ten days, especially in Tirupati rural and Tirupati urban mandals. Of the 2.90 lakh voters in Chandragiri, the TDP claimed 40,000 as fake voters, of which the booth level officials have arrived at 26,000 to be either dead, or shifted or a result of double entry errors. “We insist that 30,000 more have been added and will submit all proofs to the officials”, Mr. Nani said.
Contacted by The Hindu, Revenue Divisional Officer (Tirupati) V. Kanaka Narasa Reddy called the fears as ‘premature’ as the screening process was still on and the final list would be out by the year end. “Erroneous entries might have crept in due to online addition of votes, but they are under scrutiny. If the parties raise any issue, we will certainly act upon them”, he said.
