Congress march to Lok Bhavan stopped at Khairatabad; ministers, Azharuddin detained

Telangana Congress leaders and INDIA bloc partners marched from the Indira Gandhi statue on Necklace Road toward Lok Bhavan on October 8, demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged voter-list deletions in the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.

Police stopped the march at Khairatabad crossroads and detained TPCC president Bomma Mahesh Kumar Goud, ministers Ponnam Prabhakar, Duddilla Sridhar Babu, Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, Adluri Laxman Kumar and Vakiti Srihari, along with Congress leader Mohammed Azharuddin.

The Congress claims up to 93 lakh names could be removed from Telangana’s 3.5 crore voters. It is the first time the state government itself has joined the street agitation over the SIR exercise, which the Election Commission insists only removes duplicates, the deceased and ineligible voters.

Separately, the TPCC approached Hyderabad Police Commissioner C.V. Sajjanar alleging a coordinated attempt to delete genuine voters — including Congress leaders and workers — through pre-filled Form-7 applications, demanding an FIR and a Special Investigation Team probe.