Danam Nagender
Hyderabad: Former MLA and Congress leader Danam Nagender on Thursday, October 1, alleged that a large number of genuine voters had been removed from the electoral rolls in his constituency and demanded criminal action against those responsible.
Nagender alleged that nearly 20,000 names had been deleted from his Khairtabad Assembly constituency amid the special intensive revision despite some of the voters having been on the rolls for several years and having exercised their franchise in previous elections.
Alleging that the exercise amounted to “vote theft”, he called for strict action against election officials if any collusion or wrongdoing was established.
“If the Election Commission does not change its approach towards deletion of votes, the situation will escalate in Hyderabad, including at the Election Commission office,” he said while speaking to reporters.
“That is why we are telling the Election Commission today about this voter theft. In my constituency, 20,000 votes have been removed so far according to the report I received, we don’t know how many more have been removed.” he added.
He demanded that all deleted names be reviewed and eligible voters restored to the electoral rolls.
Nagender also said the Congress would continue its agitation to protect the voting rights of eligible citizens and warned that protests in Hyderabad would intensify if the issue was not addressed.
Nagender’s comments come after the Khairtabad Assembly seat was officially declared vacant on September 28, by a notification issued by Assembly Secretary Rendla Thirupathi, under provisions of the Tenth Schedule (anti-defection law) read with Article 191(2) of the Constitution of India.
He was disqualified by the Telangana High Court on September 18, under the anti-defection law, for contesting the 2024 Lok Sabha polls as a Congress candidate after being elected as an MLA on a Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) ticket.
The decision was upheld by the Supreme Court on September 24.
He was among the 10 MLAs who allegedly switched from the BRS to the Congress after the latter came to power in the state with a landslide win, and he lost the Secunderabad Lok Sabha contest to Bharatiya Janata Party’s G Kishan Reddy.
The Supreme Court had earlier directed the Telangana Speaker to decide the pending disqualification petitions against MLAs accused of defection, following which the Speaker ruled in Nagender’s favour and the petitioners moved the High Court.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) is yet to announce the voting dates for the Khairatabad bypoll. Since by-elections are mandated to be held within six months of a seat being declared vacant, the official window places the election deadline around February-March 2027.
After the High Court’s order on his disqualification, Nagender had said that he is ready to fight elections again. “Fighting is not new to me. I am prepared to fight,” Nagender had said.
This post was last modified on October 1, 2026 3:55 pm