Hyderabad: Telangana Congress president B Mahesh Kumar Goud on Friday accused BRS of maintaining a ‘strategic silence’ on the deletion of lakhs of votes during SIR of electoral rolls, even as almost all anti-BJP parties have taken to the streets demanding the resignation of CEC Gyanesh Kumar.“The BRS is maintaining a calculated silence, either as part of its secret understanding with BJP or due to fear that the Centre may initiate a CBI inquiry into the Kaleshwaram project and possible arrests of BRS top leaders,” alleged Mahesh Goud while addressing a media conference at Gandhi Bhavan.Questioning the silence of BRS president K Chandrasekar Rao, working president KT Rama Rao and senior leader T Harish Rao, Mahesh Goud asked why they had not organised any significant protests against the alleged deletion of eligible voters from electoral rolls or criticised the Centre for misusing ECI.He alleged that lakhs of votes were at risk of being deleted in Telangana as part of the SIR exercise and claimed that the process was being carried out with malicious intent. He said Congress had been working intensively on the revision process for the past year to protect every eligible voter’s right to vote.Referring to protests across the country, Mahesh Goud said parties other than BJP and its allies were opposing the SIR process, while BRS was mostly silent on the issue. “The BJP won elections in West Bengal and Bihar as lakhs of votes were deleted as part of the SIR. The exercise is being misused to prevent opposition parties from winning elections,” he alleged.The TPCC chief alleged that Dalits, minorities and tribals were among those affected by voter deletions. “The SIR exercise is not a new phenomenon. It was conducted fairly during the tenures of former Chief Election Commissioners TN Seshan, JM Lyngdoh and TS Krishnamurthy,” he said. He questioned why BRS was not raising concerns over the current process and alleged that its leaders feared that speaking out against BJP could prompt the Centre to initiate a CBI inquiry into the alleged Kaleshwaram scam.Stating that protests would continue until Gyanesh Kumar was removed or resigned, he said it was legitimate to raise objections to electoral revision in the public domain. He warned that Telangana and Punjab could be BJP’s next targets after West Bengal and Bihar. The Congress leader reiterated that his party’s objective was to safeguard every eligible vote and ensure that errors in the electoral revision process were questioned and addressed.
