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Hyderabad: A delegation of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) met Telangana’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) C Sudarshan Reddy on Thursday, July 15, and urged him to review and make public details of what it alleged were multiple votes registered in the name of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy.

The delegation contended that Revanth Reddy’s Election Photo Identity Card (EPIC) number, TES0274035, appears in the electoral rolls of both the Kodangal and Achampet assembly constituencies.

Demand for forensic audit

The BRS team sought a clear timeline of when Revanth Reddy’s entry was registered and subsequently altered in the electoral rolls, and asked for a forensic audit, complete with time-stamped records, of the entire process in the Chief Minister’s case. It also demanded an independent probe into the matter, insisting that the inquiry should not rely on data drawn from any state government website or official social media handle.

The delegation further asked whether Revanth Reddy, who contested the 2023 Assembly election from Kodangal, had disclosed in his election affidavit that he was also a registered voter in Kondareddipally village, which falls under the Achampet constituency. If he had not made such a disclosure, the BRS delegation said, the Election Commission of India (ECI) should examine whether the matter warranted investigation under Section 35/125A of the Representation of the People’s Act.

The delegation also cautioned that any discretionary decision or public statement on the issue, whether from the state or national leadership of the Election Commission, would be legally untenable and counter-productive, given the seriousness of the allegation. It urged Sudarshan Reddy to act impartially and get to the bottom of the matter.

BRS to Congress, then Congress to BRS

Interestingly, the delegation was led by Abhilash Rangineni, a non-resident Indian who had joined the BRS and worked for former agriculture minister S Niranjan Reddy during the 2018 Assembly elections. He switched allegiance to the Congress ahead of the 2023 Assembly elections, hoping for a ticket to contest from the Kollapur constituency.

However, with Jupally Krishna Rao, himself a former BRS leader who had joined the Congress just before the polls, also in the running for the same seat, Rangineni’s chances of securing the Kollapur ticket faded quickly. He soon returned to the BRS fold, where he remains, at least for now.

Govt says Revanth Reddy has no duplicate voter list entry

Confusion over Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy’s alleged duplicate voter entry continues after the state government’s FactCheck Telangana page deleted its earlier post that described the issue as an electoral roll anomaly. The deleted post had said the duplicate entry would be corrected through the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process and that the CM’s family had sought deletion of the Kondareddypally entry while retaining the Kodangal registration.

The fact-check page later issued a fresh post claiming Revanth Reddy’s name does not appear in the Achampet Assembly constituency or anywhere in Nagarkurnool district, stating that he is registered only in Kodangal.