Spurt in claims for deletion of voters kicks up a row

Mountain of work in Guntur district has election cell worried

March 02, 2019 12:58 am | Updated 12:58 am IST - GUNTUR

Political parties leave no stone unturned to enrol as many voters as possible but strangely, in Guntur, there has been a steep increase in the number of claims for deletion of voters, objections to proposed inclusion of names in electoral rolls submitted under Form 7 to the Electoral Registration Officers of Assembly/parliamentary constituencies.

Political parties have already begun trading charges against each other. The Opposition parties — the YSR Congress and the Jana Sena —have complained to the Chief Electoral Officer that some organisations have been deleting names of voters on the pretext of doing surveys

A staggering 1,11,639 claims submitted under Form 7 had been submitted as on Friday of which 19,104 claims have been disposed.

The process of verification of each claim is cumbersome and involves field verification, hearing the version of the applicant before finally either rejecting or accepting the claim. If the percentage of claims submitted under Form 7 is more than 0.5 % of the total number of voters, the claims are then verified by the State Election Commission.

“The massive number of claims is rather unusual and we are sure that this is the handiwork of an organised network. The election cell is unable to process the claims within the deadline,’’ said an officer.

Scene in Palnadu

An investigation launched by the district election authorities revealed some interesting facts in the Palnadu region. It has emerged that a booth convener of a party has applied for deletion of voters of rival party. In the Tadepalli Municipality, each booth received around 30 applications for deletion of voters. The district election cell is now preparing grounds for filing cases against those who are misusing the system. The police have begun investigation into these complaints.

A total of 2,29,441 voters applied for inclusion of their names in the voter list under Form 6, of which 1,09,216 claims have been processed. The total number of claims received under Form 6, Form 6 A, Form 7, Form 8, Form 8 A are a staggering 3,93, 084 of which 2,31,705 claims are still pending.

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