K Chandrasekhar Rao tells EC, clean up voter lists, then hold GHMC polls

Mr Rao made it clear that those who fail to seed their EPIC cards with Aadhaar data will lose their voting right. Chief Electoral Officer Bhanwarlal met Mr Rao at his camp office to discuss the progress of EPIC-Aadhaar seeding in Telangana.

Mr Rao said since GHMC elections are round the corner, the EC should identify bogus voters in the city first, ahead of polling and assured all government assistance to EC in this regard.

“The EC has mandated the seeding of EPIC-Aadhaar to check bogus votes in the country. The TS government will implement the EC directives totally in this regard. The seeding will be first completed in Hyderabad and later it would be extended to the entire state. We will see that the seeding is completed in 15 to 20 days in the city,” Mr Rao said.

Pointing out that bogus votes in GHMC limits would impact state politics, Mr Rao said, “Out of 119 Assembly constituencies in TS, 24 are in GHMC limits. Bogus votes would alter the electoral prospects of political parties and impact the state politics altogether. These bogus votes have to be removed. We should try to create awareness over seeding among voters. Those who fail to do so even after; we should give two-three opportunities for them for seeding before removing their votes.”

Stating that the ideal percentage of voters should be 66 per cent of overall population as per EC norms, Mr Rao said this percentage is more in case of Hyderabad, which shows the rampant existence of bogus votes here.