VIJAYAWADA: There is a vast difference in the statistics of voter's list of 2014 and that complied now. Around 2,03,384 voters are missing from the voter list in the 3 constituencies of Vijayawada, Krishna district, compared to the 2014 list. Particularly, in Vijayawada East constituency, the number of voters has decreased to 75,512. There is a difference of 69,415 voters in the Central constituency and 58,457 in the West constituency.
Though the reasons for the fall in the numbers is not clear, it might be due to Aadhaar feeding, cancellation of bogus cards, removal of duplicate identities, removal of dual entries at various places. With the state getting bifurcated and the new Capital being declared near the city, there are many new people adding to Vijayawada and this would mean the number of voters has to increase. The total voters in Krishna district also dropped by about 3.19 lakh. The voters in Krishna district were 33.37 lakh in 2014 and now there are only 30.17 lakh voters in the district, according to the latest list released by the Election Commision. In Machilipatnam, the number of voters reduced by 31,991 and in Gudivada, by 24,330. In other constituencies, they are in between 10,000-20,000.
In the 16 constituencies of Krishna district, there are a total of 30,17,405 voters, according to the officials on January 1, 2018. The number of women voters are more than that of men. Over 15,24,194 voters are women and 14,93,019 are men. There are 192 third gender voters registered in the district. The highest number of voters, 2,32,599 are in Milavaram constituency, followed by 2,30,198 voters in Gannavaram and Penamaluru constituency having 2,18,042 voters.
Malladi Vishnu, ex-MLA alleged that the number of voters was manipulated by the TD. The ruling party brought down the number of voters who are in favour of the YSRC, he said. He said the Election Commission and the revenue officers should own the responsibility for the fall in the number of voters in the district.
District collector B. Lakshmikantam told Deccan Chronicle: "We released a draft and then only released the updated list. According to our list, the number of voters has increased by 1 lakh. The ratio of population and voters must be 1,000:670 but now, it is 1,000: 640. We don't know if there were mistakes in the 2014 list ," he said.
