Congress Hits Back, Questions BJP’s Defence of ECI
Strongly countering BJP state president N. Ramchander Rao’s remarks, the Congress wondered why the BJP was defending the Election Commission of India when its officials should have been responding to allegations.
Hyderabad: Strongly countering BJP state president N. Ramchander Rao’s remarks, the Congress wondered why the BJP was defending the Election Commission of India when its officials should have been responding to allegations.
Over his claim of adding back deleted names to electoral rolls, transport minister Ponnam Prabhakar asked why the BJP was behaving as if the ECI was taking orders directly from the party.
Responding to Ramchander Rao’s statements on Monday, where he claimed to have accepted Prabhakar’s earlier challenge over alleged deletion of genuine votes, the minister in a media statement suggested that the BJP should stop acting as though the Election Commission was a tool in its hands.
“You must stop speaking as if the Election Commission was at your disposal.
What does it mean to claim that you will personally have voter names added back into the system if they go missing? Do you intend to act as Election Commission officials yourselves,” he asked the state BJP president.
Prabhakar said the Congress was ready to bring forward the names of victims who had lost their votes. He emphasised that what the Congress was making was not merely an allegation.
“We are fighting to protect democracy based on the evidence we have.
Didn’t the BJP workers in the Musheerabad constituency file Form‑7 or not, seeking voters? The state BJP president must provide a clear answer,” he demanded.
Earlier, PCC Election Commission coordination committee chairman Pulipati Rajesh Kumar challenged former Vice‑President M. Venkaiah Naidu’s statement defending the ECI and calling the ‘indiscriminate’ deletion of voters a mere ‘misconception’.
Pointing out that Venkaiah Naidu himself had received a SIR notice asking for his 2002 voter credentials, Rajesh said he should have been speaking on behalf of those affected rather than brushing aside the SIR and its impact as just a ‘misconception’.
“Venkaiah Naidu stated that voters were nowhere deleted arbitrarily or indiscriminately.
However, in West Bengal, approximately 91 lakh voters were deleted from the rolls — is this not a blind, indiscriminate deletion? Even in Telangana already over 73 lakh were deleted citing Absent, Shifted, Dead and Duplicate.
It did not seem fitting for someone of his standing. A person like Venkaiah Naidu, who often speaks about democracy, should not speak in this manner when millions of voters face the risk of being excluded from the electoral rolls,” Rajesh said.
