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Telangana elections 2018: Jwala Gutta’s name missing from voter list, AAP alleges BJP-ECI nexus

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal alleged that the Election Commission of India and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are behind the disappearance of names.

Telangana elections 2018: Jwala Gutta’s name missing from voter list, AAP alleges BJP-ECI nexus

Jwala Gutta (Photo: Instagram/@jwalagutta1)

Shuttler Jwala Gutta raised a storm on Friday stating that her name was missing from the voter list in Hyderabad, preventing her from casting her vote in the Telangana assembly elections.

Early on 7 December, when the state went to polls, the badminton star took to Twitter to express her surprise at not finding her name in the list even though it was there when she checked online.

“Surprised to see my name disappear from the voting list after checking online,” Gutta tweeted.

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Questioning the fairness of the elections, the 35-year-old Gutta said that names are “mysteriously disappearing from the list”.

“How’s the election fair when names are mysteriously disappearing from the list?” she asked in the second tweet.

 

Gutta later released a video stating that in her family of four, only her mother was able to vote as the names of her sister and her father were missing, too.

 

Reacting to Gutta’s tweets, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of having a hand in the disappearance of the names. He also levelled serious accusations against the Election Commission.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief claimed that the BJP removed the names of 30 lakh voters in Delhi.

“Names of 30 lakh voters have been similarly deleted by BJP in Delhi. It seems BJP is doing it all over the country in active collusion wid Election Commission,” he tweeted.

 

Delhi deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, too, took to Twitter to allege that the Election Commission of India was being “instructed from BJP war room”.

“Badminton Champion, Arjuna awardee, 2 times Olympian @guttajwala asks – #whereismyvote Any answer Election Commission of India? A pride player has lost her voting right!” he tweeted.

“Oh ECI! You must be busy with strategies being instructed from BJP war room,” Sisodia added.

 

In her video Gutta said that she is not raising the issue for any political objective.

“I don’t have to do this to join a political party,” she said.

Meanwhile, superstars Chiranjeevi, Nagarjuna and Junior NTR and tennis ace Sania Mirza were among top celebrities who voted in the Telangana Assembly election on Friday.

The voting in Telangana is underway a three-way battle between the Congress-led alliance (consisting of TDP, TJS and CPI), the BJP and the TRS.

Originally scheduled to be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections next year, the House was dissolved prematurely on 6 September as per a recommendation by the state cabinet necessitating the polls.

It is for the first time that the Election Commission is using Voters Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) in Telangana. This is the first full-fledged election in the country’s youngest state.

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