Hyderabad: Former minister and BRS deputy floor leader Talasani Srinivas Yadav on Monday demanded that election commission officials themselves ensure the registration of every eligible graduate as a voter for the upcoming Graduate MLC elections.
The BRS leader pointed out that while nearly 1.10 lakh voters were registered in Hyderabad during the previous graduate elections, only about 23,000 applications had been received so far. He also noted that although ECI officials claimed to have received 5.27 lakh applications from the erstwhile Hyderabad, Rangareddy and Mahabubnagar districts, verification of those applications had not yet begun.
Questioning the requirement for voters, who participated in previous Graduate MLC elections to register again, he said officials had no satisfactory explanation for the rule. He said even the CM had acknowledged that the voter registration process was progressing slowly, which reflected shortcomings in the system. Leading a BRS delegation, Srinivas Yadav met chief electoral officer Sudharshan Reddy at BRK Bhavan and submitted a memorandum on delays in the graduate voter registration process and the alleged failure of the ECI to discharge its responsibilities. Later, addressing a press conference along with MLCs Dasoju Sravan and Surabhi Vani Devi and MLA Kaleru Venkatesh, he asserted that the voter enrolment drive should be conducted entirely under the Election Commission’s supervision. Demanding immediate corrective measures, Talasani urged the ECI to deploy adequate staff and conduct a door-to-door campaign to identify and register all eligible graduates.