No Voter List Revision In Telangana, Election Panel Fast-Forwards Process

The revision of rolls in Telangana - an exacting, time consuming process - has been called off by the Election Commission to make way for polls in the state by the year-end, the time frame Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has been aiming at. The Commission, which rebuked the Chief Minister over the week-end for "announcing  the schedule", today said it would stick to the lists from January 1, 2018 and ask the voters to flag any new names or discrepancies.

The final list will be published on October 8.

The Commission had decided to send a team to Hyderabad on Tuesday to assess the situation at the ground level and see how ready the state is for elections. 

The top election body, however, said it has enough Electronic Voting Machines or EVMs and Voter Verified Paper Audit Trails or VVPAT machine to hold elections in Telangana, where the assembly was dissolved last week, eight months ahead of schedule.

Dismissing Congress claims that due to the ongoing revision of electoral rolls, a technicality, elections in the state cannot be held by year-end, the Commission said elections in the state can be held by year-end, along with Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.

The BJP, which rules the three other states going to polls, has announced that it will contest all 119 seats in Telangana. KCR, as the Chief Minister is popularly known, has announced the names of 100 candidates from his party.

The Congress, which was betting on elections next year, is hoping for a tie-up with Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister of neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. Mr Naidu has left the decision to his party.