SIR fever grips leaders of all political parties in TG

Hyderabad: Normally political parties catch ‘election fever’ quinquennially. Now, less than three years after the previous Assembly elections, ‘SIR (Special Intensive Revision) fever’ has gripped leaders of all political parties in the state, blurring the line between the ruling party and those in the Opposition.

Leaders of various political parties, including the ruling Congress, its ally All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and the main opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi, have been cautioning their respective party cadre to be alert on deletions in the voters’ list during the much-controversial exercise. The political parties have been insisting on ensuring there is no indiscriminate deletion of electors’ names in the constituencies.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) will take up the Special Intensive Revision of electoral list in Telangana from June 25 to July 24. It will publish draft electoral list on July 31. The AIMIM has been in the forefront to take up a month-long exercise of opening a help desk for the voters, releasing posters on the documents to be submitted to the officials when the officials come for the intensive revision.

The BRS party, having taken up constituency-wise meetings, has been cautioning its cadre to be alert on the exercise. In his successive meetings, working president KT Rama Rao has been cautioning the booth-level agents on keeping an eye on the exercise. He wanted them to also check on the details of dead voters and ensure their names are deleted.

Giving an example of the Jubilee Hills constituency, he wanted the agents to be alert on fictitious names. BRSLP Deputy Leader Talasani Srinivas Yadav called upon party members to remain vigilant regarding the SIR programme.

He said that the right to vote is a constitutional privilege and warned that the SIR programme presents a potential risk of eligible electors’ names being illegally removed from the electoral rolls. He noted that allegations and criticisms regarding the SIR programme are emerging from across the country. He also instructed party leaders and activists to remain alert during the entire programme. Citing the possibility of illegal vote removals, he called upon them to create public awareness to prevent such irregularities from occurring.

Now, the ruling Congress party has also jumped in to call upon its cadre to maintain strict vigil. Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president B Mahesh Kumar Goud has issued a call for vigilance regarding allegations that the names of ‘secular voters’ are being systematically removed from electoral rolls across the country. “The Congress cadre must pay special attention, starting from the booth level, to ensure that no irregularities occur during the voter list revision process”, said Goud in a party meeting held at Gandhi Bhavan on Saturday, in which AICC Telangana In-charge Meenakshi Natarajan was present. The party conducted a review with BLAs and Social Security Assistants (SSAs). Goud announced that the Congress party would maintain a strict vigil over the voters’ list revision; as part of this initiative, ministers would tour their respective constituencies every week. While there were no adverse comments from the Bharatiya Janata Party, it has been taking training programmes for the BLAs for the last one week.

All told, the SIR programme, which is going to start in the last week of June, has already sent shivers across the political sections.