Hyderabad: The Election Commission team which visited the state for two days last week to assess the preparedness of the administration to hold elections to the state Assembly will submit its report to the Chief Election Commission (CEC) on Monday. The team is learnt to have expressed concern over the large number of complaints regarding voters’ list from all parties barring the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and has recommended to the CEC that it should take a call on scheduling elections only after the state administration gives a convincing reply on why about 30 lakh names were deleted from the list, mostly in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) limits.
The EC team has questioned the collectors of three districts (Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy and Medchal) on the large number of deletions in the voters’ lists but did not get a convincing reply. The team asked collectors to submit a report on how much time it will take to rectify the errors in the voters’ list. The Central Election Commission will meet on Monday to discuss the report.
The EC team’s report will be crucial for the CEC to take a call on whether to hold Assembly elections for Telangana state along with Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram when in meets on Tuesday. The EC team is of the opinion that if the CEC allows the early poll, without addressing the discrepancies in the voters’ list, it would invite unnecessary legal problems and may block the entire poll process.
The Congress, Telugu Desam, Telangana Jana Samiti of Prof. Kodandaram and the Left parties have said that if the election is held without addressing this issue, they will move the Supreme Court. The Congress announced that it will file a case in the Supreme Court against the EC for moving hastily to conduct elections when the voters’ list issue is not resolved. Opposition parties want the EC to extend the deadline for revision of electoral rolls by a month as the current 15-day deadline will not be sufficient for the purpose. The CEC is facing a similar situation in Madhya Pradesh where the Congress has filed a case in the Supreme Court citing discrepancies in the voters’ list in that state.
