Don’t conduct voter roll drive close to polls: TDP

The Telugu Desam Party (TDP), a key ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on Tuesday urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) to communicate explicitly that the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls is not related to citizenship verification and that the exercise is not held in Andhra Pradesh within six months of any major polls.

- Vrinda Tulsian

Though the TDP did not mention the ongoing SIR in Bihar in its communication to the poll body, the suggestions come amid a raging political uproar over the EC's exercise in the poll-bound state, with various Opposition parties and some NGOs moving the Supreme Court raising question about its implementation close to the assembly polls.

"The purpose of SİR must be clearly defined and limited to electoral roll correction and inclusion. It should be explicitly communicated that the exercise is not related to citizenship verification, and any field instructions must reflect this distinction," TDP said in a letter to EC.

A TDP delegation, including its parliamentary party leader Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayalu and its Andhra Pradesh unit president Palla Srinivasa Rao, also met Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar and election commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi. The delegation submitted the letter, written by Devarayalu, to the CEC during the meeting a regular outreach practice of the poll body with all election parties across India.