Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], October 14 (ANI): Congress leader Mohammed Azharuddin on Tuesday dismissed Bharath Rashtra Samithi's (BRS) allegation that Congress is indulging in 'vote theft' ahead of the Jubilee Hills Assembly seat bypoll, scheduled for November 11.

He said that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has exposed 'vote theft'.

'We are not doing 'vote chori', but exposing those who are doing 'vote chori',' Azharuddin told ANI after attending a meeting of the Congress booth committee for Jubilee Hills by-election.

'It was a good meeting. We will have to manage the booth well to ensure maximum voting,' the cricketer-turned-politician said.

The election was necessitated following the death of the sitting MLA and BRS leader Maganti Gopinath.

Backward Class (BC) leader V Naveen Yadav is the Congress candidate. BRS has fielded Gopinath's widow Sunitha. The BJP is yet to finalise its candidate.

On Monday, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president KT Rama Rao (KTR), along with senior party leaders, submitted a detailed representation to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Telangana, alleging 'large-scale irregularities, duplicate entries, and fake votes in the Jubilee Hills Assembly Constituency.'

Speaking to the media, KTR alleged that the Congress Party is resorting to 'misuse of power and manipulation' to win the Jubilee Hills seat.

'The Congress is using all means -- persuasion, division, and coercion -- to influence the outcome. Ministers from across the state have descended on Jubilee Hills to misuse official machinery and government resources,' KTR alleged.

'When even their own MLAs are writing letters to the World Bank and newspapers saying the government has no funds, the Congress government is suddenly pouring in massive funds in Jubilee Hills, deceiving the public once again for electoral gain,' he added.

The party alleged that it has identified 'at least 20,000 duplicate and fake votes' in the Jubilee Hills constituency.

It alleged that in 400 polling booths, nearly 50 fake votes have been registered per booth.

'In many cases, a single person has two or three voter ID cards. In some instances, the same name appears multiple times with minor spelling changes. In several houses, we found 150-200 votes registered at a single address. In one instance, a small house had over 100 votes,' he alleged.

He further alleged that the Congress Party, in collusion with lower-level officials, deliberately added thousands of fake votes. 'Around 15,000 votes were registered without valid addresses. In one case, the house owner himself said that none of the 23 registered voters in his house actually live there,' KTR stated. (ANI)