Revanth says BJP–BRS are one coin
At a Kodangal meet, the CM alleged the BJP and BRS are plotting to scrub Congress votes during the Special Intensive Revision. The ECI says SIR is meant to add eligible voters and weed out ineligible ones. Proof of a conspiracy? Not published yet.
The allegation awaits booth-wise records and formal findings.
Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy told Congress booth agents in Kodangal on 22 July that the BJP and the BRS are “two sides of the same coin” and are “conspiring to remove” Congress supporters’ names in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls — particularly in his home turf. He framed the “real conspiracy” as targeting SC, ST, BC, minority and women voters, whom he said are overwhelmingly Congress voters. These are his political assertions; he did not table documents. (According to two separate reports of the same event.)
What the rulebook says is plainer. The Election Commission describes SIR as a participative clean‑up of rolls so “no eligible citizen is left out while no ineligible person is included”, with parties nominating booth‑level agents and getting an orientation to keep the process transparent. That is the published purpose; any deviation needs evidence on paper, not just on a dais.
Kodangal numbers doing the rounds — roughly 2.51 lakh electors, with around 55,000 pending SIR applications before a 30 July deadline — are reported, not yet backed by a public ECI/CEO dataset. The Commission’s SIR portal exists, but constituency‑level Telangana roll changes aren’t exposed there for easy checking.
Responses? None from the BJP or the BRS specific to this charge in the material reviewed. Booth Level Officers in the area did protest the CM’s remarks a day later, saying over 80% of the exercise was already completed — which is a defence of process, not a finding on deletions.
So where the BJP and the TDP routinely like their accusations pre‑loaded and their evidence optional, this one will need the boring bits: booth‑wise additions, deletions and grounds recorded under SIR, plus any formal complaints and orders. Until those land, what’s established is the allegation — and the ECI’s own line that SIR is supposed to expand, not erase, eligible voters.