'Telangana Cong failed to understand seriousness of deletion of names from voters' list'

Senior Telangana Congress leader Marri Shashidhar Reddy has claimed that the state leadership failed to understand the seriousness of deletion of voters from the list, despite the TPCC's election commission coordination committee highlighting the problem to the Election Commission of India (EC).

Speaking to ANI on Friday, Reddy said the names of about 22 lakh people were missing from the voters' list in Telangana after the recently-held Assembly elections.

"After the polling on December 7, 2018, lakhs of people turned out to the streets saying that their names are missing from the voters' list. The CEO of Telangana conceded and apologised for this. It was estimated that names of about 22 lakhs were missing in the entire state. He gave an assurance that this will be rectified till the Lok Sabha elections, but how can we believe in him?", said Reddy, who is the chairman of TPCC's election commission coordination committee.

"We explained to the EC that in Adilabad district, there were 2,701 voters in 2014 and by 2017, 742 names have been deleted in three polling stations of Dantanpalli village and the by-election, which was scheduled in that village, was won by TRS candidate with just 18 votes. This established the fact that TRS party is willing to stoop. We wrote about the incident to the EC but they ignored. The EC has failed to identify the problem, " he added.

Reddy said despite the findings of the TPCC's election commission coordination committee over the issue, the state Congress unit failed to understand the seriousness and has been "totally insensitive."

"Our committee has brought out all the things before the elections but unfortunately, the state Congress has not been able to understand the seriousness of our findings. Our state leadership has been totally insensitive (just) as EC and we have failed to learn any lesson from past instances. Due to our carelessness, negligence, and inefficiency, we have failed to take note of this and as a result, we have not been able to motivate the Congress workers," he said.

Taking a jibe at Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), Reddy further said, "KCR is going around the country talking of federal front and saying he wants to bring qualitative change in the country. However, the first change he wants to bring is by destroying institutions like Election Commission."

Single phase elections in Telangana were held on December 7, wherein the TRS emerged victorious by bagging 88 seats out of the 119-member assembly, thus securing a second term for KCR as chief minister.

Prajakutami, an alliance of the Congress and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) won 21 seats while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) bagged only one seat. All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) won 7 seats.