Telangana SIR: CM Revanth Reddy alleges BJP plot to delete Congress votes

Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy Saturday accused the BJP-led Centre of resorting to vote theft in Opposition-ruled states under the garb of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. While participating in a meeting of party workers in Kodangal, Reddy warned that the BJP was making attempts to win the next Assembly elections in Telangana by deleting the votes of Congress supporters.

“The BJP won Maharashtra, Bihar, and West Bengal elections by removing votes and is now adopting the same deceitful tactic in Telangana,” the CM remarked. Reddy also claimed that the BJP was targeting scheduled caste, scheduled tribe, and minority voters in the SIR.

“We will not sit idly and are ready to counter the BJP’s move to delete the names of the Congress supporters. The party workers will not tolerate any such attempt,” the chief minister added. The Congress leader further alleged that the BJP used the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation to defeat political rivals in previous elections.

Apart from the BJP, Reddy also criticised the principal Opposition in the state, Bharat Rashtra Samithi, and alleged that the party was supporting the saffron party in deleting the supporters of the Congress from the SIR list.

The final Telangana SIR list is scheduled to be released on October 19. However, the state government is learnt to have recently written to the Election Commission seeking an extension of the deadline by three to four weeks.