Who is rejecting Manikonda voter forms? Allegations point to manipulations
HYDERABAD: Serious allegations of systemic manipulation in the voter enrollment process have surfaced in Manikonda, with a civil society organisation and a political leader claiming a remote-controlled mechanism is leading to the mass rejection of applications without proper verification, resulting in administrative denial of votes.
Speaking to HyderabadMail, Shaik Arif Mohammed, General Secretary of The Citizens Council, said that tracking rejected applications revealed that the portal listed specific Booth Level Officers (BLOs) as having verified and rejected them, often for reasons such as ‘Present Ordinary Address Not Mentioned.’ However, he stated that when he contacted several BLOs directly, they were unaware of these actions and indicated that only a person in the MRO office had access to all BLO logins and was entering the data.
He alleged that hundreds of applications with correct Aadhaar-linked details are being rejected without the required physical field verification by the BLO. Mohammed described this as more than a dereliction of duty, calling it a denial of the constitutional right to vote, and provided a list of approximately 100 recent rejections.
These allegations were strongly echoed by Sitaram Dhulipala, the Bharata Rashtra Samithi (BRS) president for Manikonda, who has taken the issue to social media, tagging the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Telangana.
In a conversation with HyderabadMail, Dhulipala corroborated the claim of centralised access. “The access for about 20 BLOs has been given to one person sitting in our MRO office. He is operating on behalf of the AERO (Assistant Electoral Registration Officer). He has no authority,” Dhulipala alleged.
He framed this as a fundamental flaw in the election machinery. “The entire Indian governance depends on the electoral system. If there is a defect in the system itself it’s a constitutional failure,” he said. He noted that many BLOs are outsourced personnel with other primary jobs and lack training, making the system vulnerable to manipulation.
In a detailed post on X(formerly Twitter), Dhulipala had earlier written that the process in areas like Manikonda and Narsingi has “degenerated into a MOCKERY OF DEMOCRACY.” He stated that BLOs and other officers have been reduced to mere spectators.
“While @RahulGandhi Ji speaks about ‘Vote Chori’, the real Vote Chori is happening silently and administratively in Telangana,” the post claimed, calling it systematic voter disenfranchisement.
The BRS leader demanded immediate intervention, especially with Urban Local Body (ULB) elections expected. He called for dismantling the remote-controlled BLO system and making officials directly accountable and accessible.
