DEA Trashes KTR Fake-voter Claim in Jubilee Hills
Backward Class (BC) leader V Naveen Yadav is the Congress candidate, and the BRS has fielded Gopinath's widow Sunitha. The BJP is yet to finalise its candidate
Hyderabad: The Hyderabad District Election Authority (DEA) denied BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao’s allegations of fake votes being enrolled ahead of the November 11 Jubilee Hills Assembly byelection. The DEA after an inquiry rebutted the allegations, including that the voters were enrolled within a month.
Rama Rao had alleged at a public meeting that there were unverified bulk additions of electors in Houses No. 8-3-231/B/118 and 8-3-231/B/160 within a span of one month. Besides, in a letter to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Rama Rao had mentioned that in these two house numbers, 32 and 53 individuals respectively were enrolled.
On verification, the Hyderabad District Election Authority found that the structure designated with House No. 8-3-231/B/118 had three floors in addition to a penthouse. House No. 8-3-231/B/160, which was also mentioned in the complaint has 15 flats.
In addition to this, verification by the Hyderabad District Election Authority also revealed that Rama Rao’s primary allegation of electors being enrolled within a span of one month was false.
The District Election Authority found out that that there was no change in number of electors in the two house numbers since 2023. The allegations that these are newly enrolled voters was completely false, the election authority officials stated.
According to the the DEA, these names have been part of the final rolls for the 2023 Telangana Legislative Assembly elections and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
No new enrollments were made in the above addresses, the DEA said. It explained that the house numbers had multiple residences which was leading to a higher count of electors.
The house numbers verified by the Hyderabad Election Authority in Yousufguda division include 8-3-231/B/118 (50 electors), 8-3-231/B/119 (10 electors) , 8-3-231/B/164 (8 electors) and 8-3-231/B/160 (43 electors).
In all these house numbers the names of voters were part of the final rolls for the 2023 Assembly elections and 2024 Lok Sabha elections and were not recently added, the DEA stated.