india

Updated: Feb 21, 2019 21:39 IST

The Election Commission (EC) has received a unique request — whether the summer general elections can be held in a single phase on the same day in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

The YSR Congress has suggested that only single-day balloting in the two Telugu states can prevent possible double-voting by a large number of people who belong to Andhra Pradesh but live and work in Telangana capital, Hyderabad, or other parts of that state.

Telangana chief electoral officer Rajat Kumar told reporters on Wednesday he had written to the EC requesting whether polling in the two Telugu states could be held in a single phase.

“The conduct of polls simultaneously in both states on the same day would avoid a lot of expenditure, apart from addressing the concerns of parties on duplication of votes in both states,” Kumar said.

Before Telangana was formed in June 2014, general elections in the combined state of Andhra Pradesh were held in two phases — on April 30 in Telangana and on May 7 in Andhra Pradesh.

This time, the YSR Congress, the main opposition party in Andhra Pradesh, has lodged a complaint with the EC that the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in the state was allegedly misusing its power to manipulate the electoral list.

In a representation to chief election commissioner Sunil Arora on February 4, YSRC president YS Jaganmohan Reddy claimed there were large-scale discrepancies in the state electoral list. A detailed analysis of the list had thrown up that of a total of 3.69 crore voters in the state, as many as 59.18 lakh were duplicate votes that had allegedly been included at the behest of the TDP, he alleged.

“Of these 59.18 lakh bogus votes, as many as 20,07,395 voters have their names registered as voters both in Telangana as well as Andhra Pradesh,” he claimed.

For example, one Shashi Kumar, wife of Krishna Murthy, got her name registered as a voter in polling booth no. 40 of Tirupati constituency in Chittoor district with serial number 100. She has another vote in polling booth no. 256 of Jubilee Hills constituency in Hyderabad with serial number 129. Surprisingly, in both cases, the voter has the same electoral photo identity card number MZT5438635, the YSRC leader pointed out.

The apprehension of the opposition party is that a large number of voters belonging to Andhra Pradesh continue to stay in Telangana, particularly in and around Hyderabad, even now.

“Though they stay in Hyderabad, they have their properties and families in Andhra and they keep travelling to their native places during holidays. Similarly, more than 5,000 employees have moved to Amaravati and Vijayawada after the bifurcation, but they have their families and houses in Hyderabad and every weekend, they come back to the city. They must have got their names registered in both states,” a YSRC leader argued.

The TDP, however, rubbished such apprehensions. “We don’t have any objections if the elections are held in a single phase in both states. But the allegation that there would be double-voting by pro-TDP voters in both states has no meaning. The number of such double-voters will be very few and the EC has the mechanism to prevent such double-voting,” TDP official spokesman Y Babu Rajendra Prasad said on Thursday.

Author and independent political analyst Sriram Karri said there was nothing wrong in conducting elections in both Telugu states in a single phase, if the EC could make adequate security and other arrangements.

“But it will be stupid if it does it on the grounds of double-voting. If a voter exercises his franchise in one state, he cannot vote in another state because of indelible ink. If he can still do it, then the mistake lies with the EC for lacking a mechanism to prevent double-voting,” he said.