56,000 voter names struck off

​Tirupati: A whopping 56,000 voters were removed so far in the intense verification of the electoral list which was taken up in the Tirupati Municipal Corporation (TMC) limits since June. The intense verification of the electoral list was necessitated with the government contemplating to hold election to the TMC which was long due.

Verification of about 90 per cent of the 2.59 lakh voters under 250 polling booths in the municipal corporation limits was over, according to Tirupati Urban mandal Tahsildar Venkateswarlu. He said that the verification of the remaining voters will be completed by July 6. He said that names of 56,000 voters from voters list were deleted which include those dead, shifted to other areas, duplication and also not found residing in their houses.

In some booths including Booth Number 160 a large number of 933 voters were removed in the verification while the number was above 500 in more than 25 booths which is really high considering the fact that the average number of voters for each booth which was only about 1,000.

There are 256 booths in Tirupati Assembly constituency in which four booths are in Tirumala and two in Settipalli which are outside the purview of the TMC leaving 250 polling booths in the corporation limits, Venkateswarlu said adding that along with Booth Level Officers (BLOs), data entry operators, VROs were involved in the massive exercise to complete it so as to enable the publication of the draft voter list on July 7. Objections, if any, can be received till July 22 after which the final list of voters will be declared on August 16.

The verification of the voters list was made easy with the tab provided to the BLOs, who have also taken up the on the spot enrollment of new voters, provided the applicants could furnish the required documents like residence and identity proof, he said adding that this avoided the people coming all the way to tahsildar office or taking the trouble of filing it online. In all about, 11,000 new voters were enrolled on the spot during the intense verification campaign by 250 BLOs, he informed.

The tahsildar said that the enrollment of new voters was intensified as the number of applicants for enrolling as new voters was only 11,000 which was much less than the expected number of 20,000. In this connection, he said the response for the verification including enrolling as new voters was lukewarm and informed that many BLOs faced bitter experience particularly in the posh localities, apartments and also in the areas were more educated living.

The security at the apartments objected the verification by the staff visiting flats while many residents shut the door on the face of the staff, saying that they don’t want to be disturbed.

Answering a query, Venkateswarlu said that the removal of voters including bogus voters was much higher than in any other constituencies in Chittoor district. He said of the 3.04 lakh voters in the constituency, 43,000 were removed in the summary revision taken up in October-November last year, bringing down the total electorate to 2.71 lakh including all the 256 booths in the constituency (Tirumala and Settipalli also) in Tirupati Assembly segment. With the removal of the 56,000 votes, the electoral strength of the urban dominated Tirupati constituency will likely to come down much further.