40 lakh? 60 lakh? TDP, YSRCP set to take bogus-voter claims to EC door

If one goes by the charges and counter-charges of the ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) and Opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP), there are about 40 lakh to 60 lakh bogus voters in Andhra Pradesh, accounting for 10 to 15 per cent of the total votes of 4.07 crore (2022) in the state. According to these parties, the number of bogus votes varies from 5,000 to 36,000 per constituency. Both parties claim they have proof.

Given a shrinking winning margin in elections, the presence of a few bogus votes in favour of a particular candidate makes a huge difference in the fortunes of political parties. Hence, parties vie with each other to maintain bogus votes wherever they are strong. Registering two votes in the same name, retaining the names of deceased persons, and enrolling names of those belonging to other districts or even states as voters come under the bogus votes category.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, 32 candidates won by a margin of less than 10,000 votes. Nine candidates won by less than 2,000 votes. A YSRCP MLA from Vijayawada won by a low margin of 25 votes. A veteran of a political party who was once a minister and MP lost the election by a margin of 1,647 votes. Many senior leaders lost the election by a margin of less than 1,000 votes.

Both parties set to meet EC

TDP president and Leader of Opposition N Chandrababu Naidu is expected to lodge a complaint with the Election Commission against the deletion of names of TDP sympathizers from the electoral roll and enrolling bogus names as voters across the state by the ruling YSRCP.

Similarly, the YSRCP, led by its Rajya Sabha member Vijayasai Reddy, has sought an appointment with the Election Commission (EC) to present a report on the bogus votes enrolled during Naidu’s regime between 2014 and 2019. While the TDP alleges 40 lakh bogus voters were enrolled by the YSRCP, the latter counters the charge by alleging that TDP had enrolled 60 lakh bogus voters when the party was in power and the party had found bogus votes even in Naidu’s Kuppam constituency.

The issue snowballed into a major controversy, with the EC recommending the suspension of two Returning Officers (RO) last week, following a complaint by Payyavula Keshav, TDP MLA from Uravakonda constituency in Anantapur district, for deleting genuine voters and adding bogus voters to the electoral roll.

Anantapur Zilla Parishad Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Bhaskar Reddy has been suspended for allegedly enrolling thousands of persons which Keshav alleged as bogus votes. Swaroopa Rani, the previous RO, has also been suspended for deleting the names of voters without following proper procedure.

Delayed action?

It took nine months for the Election Commission to act on the complaints, said Keshav. “I first lodged a complaint with district officials about the deletion of voters and addition of bogus voters at the behest of YSRCP leaders in 2022. As there had been no action, I had to take up the matter with the CEC, which deputed a team for an inquiry, which confirmed the irregularities. Finally, the EC recommended suspension of the two officials, and the state had to obey it,” he said.

“In my case, YSRC former MLA Visweswar Reddy submitted representations in bulk to the RO to delete as many as 7,000 votes. The process was completed in just two days. Following that, I had lodged a complaint in October 2022,” he said.

TDP politburo member Kalva Srinivasulu said the YSRCP is using Ward Volunteers to identify the TDP sympathizers and forcing the Booth Level Officers (BLO) of the EC to delete their names from the electoral roll.

“There is a proper procedure to delete a name. One has to submit the request in Form 7 prescribed by the commission. And the officials are not supposed to act on the bulk complaints. Here, no rule is followed. If a house of TDP sympathizers is found locked, without verifying where the voters of the house have gone, complaints are lodged and names are deleted on a war footing. In the case of deceased voters, BLOs are prompt in removing the voters identified as TDP sympathizers and, at the same time, ignoring the deceased voters from YSRC-friendly families,” said Kalva.

The TDP veteran said on the one hand, thousands of voters had been deleted, and on the other, fresh voters, belonging to other districts and states, had also been enrolled at the behest of YSRCP leaders.

According to Srinivasulu, TDP has found many instances where more than a hundred voters were enrolled on the same door number in Singanamala and Raptadu constituencies when the party had scrutinized the electoral roll.

“Done by all”

State Panchayat Raj minister Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy, on the other hand, said the YSRCP had identified 60 lakh bogus voters enrolled during the TDP regime, and the YSRCP had initiated the process of deleting these bogus voters.

He also revealed that 36,000 bogus voters had been identified in Kuppam constituency, which Chandrababu Naidu represents.

“Bogus votes have been identified by the party when it undertook the ‘House to House Visit’ programme. Since Naidu perceived that his grip over the constituency was fading, he resorted to enrolling bogus votes with the hope that they would bail him out in the future. Still, he failed,” he said.

According to a retired teacher, who oversaw polling in many stations in Kurnool district in his career, all parties resort to rigging by using bogus votes. “Irrespective of the party, the polling is taken over by the party that controls the area after 3 pm. A party’s agents cast votes on behalf of deceased voters and votes of non-existent persons enrolled as voters,” he said.

It’s a rare opportunity for the Election Commission to cleanse the electoral rolls as the two major parties are coming out with proof of bogus voters, said Prof. E Venkateshu, who teaches political science at Hyderabad Central University.

“Enrolling voters and deletion of the voters’ names from the electoral roll is the prerogative of the Election Commission as per the Representation of People’s Act. But in the case of Andhra, political parties are enrolling and deleting the names at their will. It shows how the election process is being subverted in the state despite the existence of an autonomous Election Commission. The EC must grab the opportunity to purge the list of bogus votes from both sides,” Prof. Ventakeshu said.