Telangana Congress president B Mahesh Kumar Goud has alleged that the deletion of names from electoral rolls targeted secular-minded voters, with Muslims, poor households and adivasis accounting for a large proportion of those affected. He made the allegations during an informal interaction with media persons in Hyderabad on Saturday.
Goud alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party used the Special Intensive Revision, or SIR, to remove voter names from the rolls. The report did not provide figures for the number of deletions or documentary evidence supporting the allegation, and the claims were not independently established in the supplied account.
The Congress leader said similar concerns had emerged in Musheerabad, where an FIR had been registered. The report did not specify the sections of law invoked, the police station involved or whether the FIR related directly to alleged electoral roll deletions. It also did not include a response from the Election Commission, the police or the BJP.
Goud questioned what he described as drastic changes in election results between the Maharashtra assembly and parliamentary elections held within three months. He alleged that similar developments had occurred in West Bengal and Bihar, but the report did not provide constituency-level results, voter-roll data or other evidence to establish a connection between the electoral outcomes and roll deletions.
The allegations place electoral roll administration at the centre of a wider political dispute over who remains eligible to vote and how changes to voter lists are reviewed. For urban residents, the issue can have a direct administrative consequence: a deleted or missing name may prevent a person from voting unless the error is identified and corrected through the applicable electoral process. The supplied report, however, does not state how many Hyderabad voters may have been affected or whether any correction drive has been announced.
Goud also accused the BJP of raising questions about foreign origins when it faced political difficulties. He alleged that the BJP had remained silent over alleged Chinese encroachments into Indian territory and accused the Narendra Modi government of undermining constitutional institutions. These remarks were part of the same media interaction but were not linked in the report to a specific electoral administration measure.
He further alleged that nearly 97% of Enforcement Directorate cases were registered against industrialists affiliated with opposition parties. The report did not identify the source of this figure or provide details of the cases included in the calculation.
Goud also addressed controversy surrounding remarks about Kerala, saying that Ramesh Chennithala had not claimed that Congress won because of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. The supplied report ends while describing his clarification and does not include further details.
The immediate next steps reported are limited to the FIR mentioned in connection with concerns in Musheerabad. No official verification of the alleged deletions, affected voter groups or the wider claims was included in the account.
