CPI(M) State Secretariat member Ch. Babu Rao on Wednesday criticised the Election Commission for issuing notices to voters over discrepancies in electoral records during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), alleging that the exercise was causing hardship to ordinary citizens seeking to protect their voting rights.

Mr. Babu Rao said he himself had received a notice despite submitting all required documents during the SIR process. He said his name had been included in the draft electoral roll as voter No. 467 in Part 117 of the Vijayawada Central Assembly constituency after verification with the 2002 electoral roll. However, officials later cited discrepancies in his father Bala Nageswara Rao’s name and asked him to appear for an enquiry and submit documents again.

He said he appeared before officials at LBS Nagar on August 18 and submitted the required documents. The discrepancy, he argued, was the result of transliteration and data-entry errors by election authorities and voters should not be held responsible for such mistakes.

Mr. Babu Rao alleged that the SIR was leading to large-scale deletion of voters and claimed that 45 lakh names had already been removed from Andhra Pradesh rolls, while notices were being issued to another 44 lakh voters over discrepancies in names, ages and other details. He claimed notices were being prepared or issued to 1,37,297 voters in Vijayawada’s three Assembly constituencies.

He demanded withdrawal of the notices and door-to-door verification using current documents. Eligible voters should not lose their franchise because of technical or clerical discrepancies, he said, urging the Election Commission to take responsibility for correcting electoral records.

Published - August 19, 2026 08:19 pm IST