Revanth Reddy warns Congress leaders over SIR
HYDERABAD: Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy expressed concern that Telangana could lose 21% of its votes if the party fails to adopt an effective strategy for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
He blamed the lack of adequate responsibility among in-charge ministers, constituency in-charges and booth-level leaders for the situation and warned that negligence could cause major political damage to the Congress in future.
At a Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) Zoom meeting on Thursday, Revanth expressed dissatisfaction with the functioning of district in-charge ministers, MLAs and parliamentary and assembly constituency in-charges. He directed leaders at every level to work in coordination.
Revanth asks ministers to review SIR work in districts
Revanth directed district in-charge ministers to immediately hold reviews with parliamentary and assembly constituency in-charges in their respective districts.
He asked them to prepare detailed reports for every assembly constituency covering the electoral rolls, possible deletions, objections and the status of applications.
The chief minister also directed MLAs and constituency in-charges to stay in their constituencies for at least four days. They should tour polling booths, identify voter-related problems and take them up with the concerned officials for resolution.
Leaders were asked to collect clear information on where deletions were possible, how many voters faced problems with their details and where objections needed to be filed.
Revanth warned that the party would not tolerate a failure to implement a proper action plan. He said the All India Congress Committee (AICC) had issued clear directions on SIR and there should be no laxity in implementing them.
He also asked party leaders to widely publicise the allegation that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) were conspiring to remove votes.
Natarajan asks leaders to scrutinise every voter
Congress in-charge for Telangana Meenakshi Natarajan said the deletion of 73 lakh votes and identification of another 64 lakh as suspicious votes during the SIR process was a serious issue.
She said no other state had witnessed voter deletions on such a large scale and described the combined figure of deleted and suspicious votes — more than 1.30 crore — as a serious concern.
Natarajan alleged that there were suspicions of a conspiracy involving the BJP and the Election Commission behind the deletion of votes.
She said booth-level agents (BSAs) had a crucial role in the SIR exercise and asked them to scrutinise every voter carefully, ward by ward.
She directed every party leader to focus on the final stage of the SIR process from Thursday.
Mahesh Kumar Goud calls voter deletions dangerous
TPCC president B Mahesh Kumar Goud alleged that large-scale voter deletions appeared to be taking place as part of an alleged understanding between the BJP and the Election Commission.
He said more votes had been deleted in Telangana than in Bengal and asked district in-charge ministers to take the SIR exercise seriously.
Goud also urged them to maintain special focus on their constituencies until the final electoral rolls are published.
