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NEW DELHI: Union coal minister G Kishan Reddy on Saturday accused Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy of attempting to provoke Muslims, disturb law and order and derail the Election Commission‘s ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state.Addressing reporters in Hyderabad, the senior BJP leader also alleged that the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) was intimidating booth level officers (BLOs) in the city’s old quarters to obstruct household surveys, while claiming that the ruling Congress and the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) were backing the party.Speaking to reporters, Kishan Reddy said, “The Congress government and the chief minister himself are trying to threaten. At a recent meeting of Muslims, (he said) if you don’t take precautions, you will lose your votes… An attempt was made to provoke Muslims. The Chief Minister himself is attempting to disturb law and order, hurt SIR process and to link it with religion.”The Union minister further alleged that Rohingya migrants and people from Pakistan and Bangladesh possessed voter identity cards, Public Distribution System ration cards and other official documents in Hyderabad, while accusing non-BJP parties of remaining silent on the issue.According to him, there were Rohingyas and instances of duplicate voting in several residential colonies in Hyderabad, and it was the Election Commission’s responsibility to address such irregularities.Kishan Reddy maintained that the SIR exercise should continue despite what he described as “false allegations” levelled by some political parties against the Election Commission.He also accused the Congress government of undermining its own officials by questioning the revision process, even though it was being carried out by state government employees.“Though the SIR is carried out by the Telangana government employees, he alleged that the CM, Congress and BRS are ‘spreading false information’ over the exercise as they do not trust the staff,” he said.Alleging interference by the AIMIM, Kishan Reddy claimed that the party was preventing BLOs from carrying out door-to-door verification in Hyderabad’s old city.“In the old city, the AIMIM is trying to threaten BLOs, saying you should not visit houses and take up survey of houses. (AIMIM says) we will give you the filled up forms, you should not remove any votes. They are into this during the last four months. Congress, BRS are fully cooperating in this,” he said.He asserted that the revision would not be conducted according to the wishes of the AIMIM and said the BJP would stand by government employees if they were threatened while carrying out the exercise.The BJP leader also accused the Congress and the BRS of seeking the AIMIM’s political support, referring to past remarks by Revanth Reddy in which, he alleged, the Chief Minister had said “Congress means Muslims and Muslims mean Congress” and described himself as “Revanth Uddin”.Questioning the Congress’ criticism of the electoral roll revision, Kishan Reddy asked why the party objected to the SIR in states such as West Bengal and Bihar but not in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, where similar exercises had also been undertaken.He further alleged that non-BJP parties were attempting to create unnecessary doubts about the Election Commission for political gain.The allegations come amid an escalating political row over the SIR exercise in Telangana. The Telangana Congress has raised concerns over the revision process, alleging that it could lead to the deletion of genuine voters from the electoral rolls.Earlier this week, chief minister Revanth Reddy instructed Congress ministers, MLAs, MPs and constituency in-charges to remain vigilant during the SIR process and warned of strict action against any party leader who failed to follow organisational instructions. He issued the directions during a video conference after reports emerged alleging the deletion of genuine voters’ names from electoral rolls.Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president Mahesh Kumar Goud recently said the Congress would protect the voting rights of citizens and ensure that no eligible voter was disenfranchised during the exercise. He alleged that the revision process was being used to target “secular votes” and said the party was monitoring developments closely.The Congress has also urged the Election Commission to conduct the exercise transparently and without haste, arguing that no major elections are due in the state and that there is sufficient time for a comprehensive revision.
