BJP writes to ECI on data theft, irregularities in Andhra voters' list

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday wrote a letter to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to register a complaint against the alleged electoral data theft, massive irregularities in electoral rolls, and electoral malpractices in Andhra Pradesh.

In a letter dated March 8, the BJP accused Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu of publically threatening the BJP leaders.

The BJP has also demanded the Director General of Police (DGP) Andhra Pradesh and few other high ranking officials to be sent out of the state during elections to avoid any hurdle during campaigning.

"The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh has been publically threatening the BJP leaders that the public will target them and beat them up. In the most irresponsible manner, he has been provoking his party's cadres against the BJP leaders. The state police have been acting in a very partial manner in favour of the ruling party. Unless significant changes are made in the leadership of the Police force, free and fair election would not be possible. The DGP and few other high ranking officials must be sent out of the state during elections to give confidence to the political parties and voters that the election process will free and fair and there are no hurdles in campaigning activities," the letter read.

The BJP also claimed that bribes may be directly sent to the bank accounts of voters in the eve of polls.

"The unprecedented flow and spending of money in the state calls for significant and innovative steps to counter the bribe menace. There is a strong possibility that the bribe may be directly delivered to the bank accounts of voters in the eve of elections. We suspect that the information on bank accounts has been leaked to the private companies working for the ruling TDP to effect bribe transfers ahead of elections. This hi-tech "Direct Bribe Transfer" can completely vitiate the election process and alter the poll dynamics. The Election Commission must evolve means to curb this before this potential crime occurs to maintain the sanctity of the election process," it added.

The BJP has appealed the ECI to declare alleged acts by the Naidu-led Andhra Pradesh government as a fraudulent practice.

"To woo voters, ahead of polls, Andhra Pradesh state government has issued post-dated cheques to people under many schemes only to hoodwink them ahead of polls. We appeal the Election Commission to declare this as a fraudulent practice and make all such actions null and void," the BJP said.

"After acquiring the public data unauthorizedly, large-scale deletion of voters showing a preference for the Opposition parties in government surveys has been done as a preordained conspiracy. Equally, a large number of non-genuine, bogus voters have been added to the electoral rolls with duplicate names and juggling of the names with the connivance of state government officials involved in the preparation of electoral rolls," the BJP stated.

The BJP alleged, "Complaints to the Chief Electoral Officer of Andhra Pradesh have not yielded much results as verification exercise through the revenue officials of the State Government has been subverted to favour the ruling TDP...Around 18 lakhs votes were removed from the lists and subsequently almost the same number was added till January 2019 almost matching the 2014 number.