Telugu Desam Party has common voters in both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. In 2014, the TDP benefited out of the duplicate votes as the election dates varied in both the states. The situation is not the same this time.
The same voters (who are not yet de-duplicated) would be of no help to TDP in the upcoming Lok Sabha election as the polling in both the states will take place on April 11, 2019.
Politicians across the party line have expressed apprehensions on duplicate votes. The Election Commission of India is yet to act on the allegation that around 30 lakh voters are common both in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and there is no mechanism to run deduplication on the electoral rolls of both States.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Gopala Krishna Dwivedi told TOI, ”The allegation made by certain parties is that there are 30 lakh entries in electoral rolls common to both Telangana and AP. I have written to ECI regarding the duplicate votes in two different states. This problem is an issue for both Telangana and Andhra. The deduplication software has to be run for both the States to detect and eliminate this problem. We don’t have provision to do this. We have to depend on ECI Delhi. Whatever duplications we have identified so far we are in the process of deletion within the State but for interstate, we are waiting for EC orders.”
Before the election notification release, YSRCP President Y S Jaganmohan Reddy Monday urged Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora to conduct the parliamentary elections in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana on the same day as many people are registered to votes in both the states.
After the state bifurcation, many people have their votes in both states. Leaders from various parties appealed to the Chief Election Commissioner to hold the elections in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh on the same day so that such voters cast their vote in one state.
With election date being the same in both the states, the voters are now compelled to either vote in Andhra Pradesh or Telangana.