We will remove 60 lakh ‘fake voters’ from the electoral rolls, says A.P. Minister Peddireddi Ramachandra Reddy

These bogus voters had found their way into the rolls in 2018 when the Telugu Desam Party was in power, alleges Peddireddi

Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy, Minister for Energy & Mines and Geology addressing the media at Publicity Cell, AP Secretariat, Velagapudi village in Guntur district. Photo: Arrrangement

More than 60 lakh fake voters had found their way into the electoral rolls in 2018 when the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) was in power in Andhra Pradesh, and these bogus entries would have to be removed, Minister of Mines Peddireddi Ramachandra Reddy said on August 31.

Reacting to the TDP’s allegations that the YSRCP government was deliberately removing the names of voters owing their allegiance to the opposition party, Mr. Ramachandra Reddy said the YSRCP had been insisting on the Election Commission of India (ECI) to remove all these bogus voters from the rolls.

Constituency-wise list

“All the 60 lakh fake voters will be removed by following the due procedure. We have prepared a constituency-wise fake voter list and submitted the same to the ECI. Every YSRCP legislator is scrutinising the rolls to identify the fake voters,” Mr. Ramachandra Reddy said.

He further said that the ECI had removed more than 12,000 fake voters in Kuppam Assembly constituency alone, and TDP national president N. Chandrababu Naidu, who represents the segment in the Legislative Assembly, too had not objected to it.

Mr. Ramachandra Reddy said that the ECI had taken action on a couple of officers in Anantapur district based on a complaint lodged by TDP legislator P. Keshav as they allegedly violated certain rules.