Ahead of Telangana assembly polls, the BJP on Wednesday alleged that names of illegal Rohingya Muslims have been included in the voters’ list of 15 constituencies of Hyderabad.
The party sought a probe by the Election Commission (EC) on this joint conspiracy of the Congress, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and the ruling party the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS). BJP further accused the parties of deleting names from Telangana voters’ list on grounds of their community.
A delegation comprising Union Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, party general secretary Arun Singh and BJP’s national media head Anil Baluni met top EC officials to submit their memorandum in this regard.
After the meeting, Naqvi told reporters that though the Union Home Ministry had given clear instructions that Rohingya Muslims are not Indian citizens, they have been registered as voters in Telangana.
“The registration of Rohingya Muslims as voters is a clear violation of laws of the land. The Election Commission may institute a special investigation team to probe the matter,” the BJP said in its memorandum to the Commission.
The BJP alleging that there has been an exceptional increase in the number of voters as names of several fake voters and Rohingyas’ have illegally been included in the list, demanded that electoral rolls of 15 assembly constituencies in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation be rectified before the assembly election.
Speaking to the media, Naqvi said, “Genuine voters from a particular community and supporting a specific party have been deleted under a planned conspiracy. Names of several fake voters have been included in the list. Around 700-800 voters have the same address. Names of Rohingyas have also been included in the list. They should not be allowed to cast votes. We demanded the Election Commission to look into the loopholes before the election and take action against officers involved.”
On November 28, it has come to light, that while names of Rohingyas have been deleted from Ranga Reddy and Medak districts, 71 out of 189 names still exist in the electoral rolls of the Hyderabad district. All these illegal voters are registered under the Chandrayangutta constituency, where Akbaruddin Owaisi from the AIMIM party has been an MLA since 1999. This pinpoints a major lapse by the Telangana Election Commission.
While BJP is exerting pressure on the election commission to rectify the mistake immediately as Telangana goes for polls on December 7, the Election Commission of India (ECI) is yet to react on this disclosure, Union Minister of Minority Affairs, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said.
