Hyderabad: Former minister Marri Sashidhar Reddy has criticized the Congress party for its campaign about “vote theft,” calling it a deceptive tactic to mislead people.
On Tuesday, Reddy issued a statement accusing Congress leaders of spreading false claims about election integrity. He pointed to the Bihar elections and recent Lok Sabha polls as examples.
Reddy recalled that in the 2024 general elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi motivated the BJP with the slogan “Char Sau Paar.” In contrast, Rahul Gandhi and other Congress leaders claimed that reservations would be removed and the Constitution was at risk. Reddy argued this was an emotional ploy to distract voters from genuine election issues.
He dismissed allegations of massive voter deletions in Bihar, noting official data reported 7.89 crore registered voters and 77,895 polling stations. The Congress’s claim of 65 lakh missing votes is less than 1% of all voters, he said, and such updates are standard during electoral roll revisions. The Election Commission has allowed a one-month period for claims and objections, with over 4.3 lakh Form-6 applications already filed.
Focusing on Telangana, Reddy pointed out ongoing voter roll issues. In 2018, nearly 68 lakh errors were found, including 30 lakh duplicate votes, 12 lakh cross-constituency duplicates, and 18 lakh entries linked to Andhra Pradesh. He claimed that many voters were listed in single households without proper address checks.
