Sameer challenges BJP after Hyderabad electoral rolls show no illegal immigrants

Hyderabad: Former DCC President Mohammed Waliullah Sameer has challenged the BJP over its repeated allegations that Rohingya Muslims and illegal Bangladeshi immigrants were enrolled as voters in Hyderabad’s Old City. He was reacting to a clarification from Hyderabad District Election Officer and GHMC Commissioner R.V. Karnan.

According to the clarification, officials detected no illegal Bangladeshi immigrants or Rohingya Muslims on the electoral rolls of Hyderabad district’s 15 Assembly constituencies. They identified only around 10 to 12 Nepali citizens in Sanathnagar. These Nepali citizens had entered India legally, but officials removed them from the rolls because they do not hold Indian citizenship.

Sameer said the findings of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls exposed the allegations as a politically motivated campaign to malign the predominantly Muslim neighbourhoods of Hyderabad. He said the official findings demolished the BJP’s claim that thousands of illegal immigrants had obtained fraudulent documents and voting rights with the support of political parties.

Sameer also questioned Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s statement at a BJP rally in Hyderabad on November 2. Shah claimed that the nationwide SIR exercise had identified nearly three crore illegal infiltrators, largely Bangladeshis. He accused the Congress of protecting them for electoral gains.

Sameer questions exclusion of 9,19,088 electors

The Congress leader raised concerns over the exclusion of 9,19,088 electors from the draft electoral rolls of Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency. The figure represents approximately 39.46 per cent of its pre-revision electorate of 23.29 lakh. He said large-scale exclusions raise serious questions about the verification process and the possibility that genuine Indian citizens could lose their voting rights.

“An absent voter is not an infiltrator. A person who has shifted residence is not a Bangladeshi. The BJP cannot use electoral statistics to manufacture allegations against an entire community,” Sameer said. He demanded a public apology from BJP leaders for making baseless allegations against the people of Hyderabad.