BRS seeks EC action against duplicate voters in Telangana, demands nationwide SIR

New Delhi, Jul 10 (PTI) After meeting the Chief Election Commissioner on Friday, a Bharat Rashtra Samithi delegation urged him to conduct a scientific verification to identify and eliminate duplicate and multiple voter registrations, claiming it found such entries across all 119 of Telangana's Assembly constituencies. The three-member delegation, comprising Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) Parliamentary Party leader Vaddiraju Ravichandra, BRS General Secretary Soma Bharat and former MP B Vinod Kumar, also demanded that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR)-2026 be extended to the entire country. The BRS leaders reiterated the party's support for SIR-2026, stating its objective should be "One Citizen One Vote" while ensuring no genuine voter loses the right to vote, according to a representation submitted to the Election Commission (EC). The party said it has deployed nearly 35,000 Booth Level Agents (BLAs) across Telangana to help identify suspected duplicate and multiple voter registrations. BRS claimed its preliminary analysis found an average of 16,243 suspected duplicate voter entries per Assembly constituency, with the highest reaching 53,695. It said these were only suspected cases requiring statutory verification by the EC. The party categorised the suspected duplicate registrations into four types: within the same Assembly constituency, within the same Parliamentary constituency, across different Assembly constituencies in Telangana, and between Telangana and neighbouring states. BRS said that as Telangana shares borders with Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh, the EC should specifically identify inter-state duplicate voter registrations during SIR-2026. Referring to the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, the party said many voters may still have registrations in both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, and asked the poll body to identify such cases and allow voters to retain only one valid registration at a place of their choice, as per law. BRS cited Sections 17, 18 and 62 of the Representation of the People Act to state that multiple voter registrations are prohibited and should be eliminated during the ongoing revision. The party, however, stressed that not a single genuine voter should be deleted due to procedural errors, mistaken identity or incomplete verification, and assured the EC of its full cooperation in conducting a transparent and legally sustainable SIR. In its representation, BRS urged the EC to utilise all available scientific and technological tools, including Aadhaar-enabled verification wherever legally permissible, de-duplication software, Artificial Intelligence-assisted matching, facial recognition and GIS-based verification, along with field verification, for effective identification and elimination of duplicate voter registrations. PTI LUX ASD ASD