BJP alleges ‘fear politics’ over voter roll revision, demands Singareni probe

HYDERABAD

Telangana BJP president N. Ramchander Rao has accused the Congress, BRS and MIM of deliberately spreading “fear and panic” by falsely claiming that Muslim votes would be deleted during the Election Commission’s ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

“No genuine voter from any community will be removed from the voter lists,” he asserted, emphasising that the SIR exercise is aimed solely at eliminating “dead, duplicate and fake voters, as well as illegal Rohingyas” from electoral rolls.

Mr. Rao argued that similar exercises elsewhere have not led to political bias. Citing West Bengal, he claimed that a majority of deleted votes were that of Hindus and that the Trinamool Congress still won in areas where deletions were highest.

Addressing a BJP workshop at Nagole for the Ranga Reddy Urban district on Friday, he alleged that Congress and BRS routinely “mislead” people by blaming the SIR process whenever the BJP performs well, while remaining silent about States like Kerala where Congress registers electoral successes.

Reiterating his stand, Mr. Rao said that while every eligible Indian citizen has the right to vote, “foreigners — Rohingyas and illegal Bangladeshi immigrants — have no place on India’s voter list.” He stressed that identifying and removing “fake and illegal votes” was essential to maintaining electoral integrity.

He urged BJP workers, particularly booth-level representatives, to actively participate in the SIR process by going door-to-door, assisting voters, identifying duplicate and deceased entries, and ensuring that genuine voters remain on the rolls. Party cadre were also asked to counter “false propaganda” and clarify public doubts about the exercise.

“This is an Election Commission initiative to clean up voter lists. It is our responsibility to support it, safeguard genuine voters, and ensure that fake and illegal names are removed,” he added.

SCCL probe

In a separate development, BJP Legislature Party leader A. Maheshwar Reddy called for a comprehensive inquiry into decisions involving public funds, contracts and expenditures of the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) during both the BRS regime and the current government.

After inspecting coal mines, he said that SCCL is a key State asset that provides employment to thousands and must operate with complete transparency. He flagged several concerns, including the allocation of the Tadicherla coal block to a private firm instead of SCCL, the absence of a coal linkage from Naini mines to the Singareni Thermal Power Plant, and alleged irregularities in high-value contracts for machinery, solar projects, diesel and gelatin procurement. He also pointed to a reported discrepancy of four million tonnes in coal records this year, calling for a thorough and transparent investigation into all such issues.