Telangana MLC Polls: Voters Allege Personal Data Leaked by BJP MLC

The upcoming Graduate Constituency MLC elections in Telangana have taken an interesting turn, with hundreds of voters taking to Twitter to share a message they have received from the sitting Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Legislative Council, N Ramchander Rao. The message, which was sent to those who have registered to be a part of the electoral roll, has raised concerns from the voters about their personal data being leaked without any consent on their part.

It appears from the message that there is an alleged breach of voter data, including phone numbers, from the election commission. “Is this data being wilfully distributed by Election Commission to the political parties? Or are these details being scraped from the Election Commission's website? In either case, this allows political parties to micro target voters, a process over which EC has no guidelines for content regulation, and fails to protect the voter from harmful and micro targeted messaging from political parties,” said Kiran Chandra, general secretary of the Free Software Movement of India (FSMI), commenting on the repercussions that such data breach may have.

Following this, some people have filed a cyber crime complaint under sections 66,70, 72, 72A, and 80 of the IT Act of 2008. The complaint states that the voters have neither given any consent nor are they members of the BJP and that they have no individual contact with N Ramchander Rao. They have also demanded an investigation to ascertain the source of the data leak and to investigate both N Ramchander Rao and the election commission.

Also read: Voter Deletions in Telangana Using Aadhaar Questioned

Meanwhile, responding to these concerns, the BJP MLC termed the complaints as ‘digital illiteracy’ and that they have a database of 2,50,000 voters. He said they have hired 100 people to gather this database. He has also said “there is nothing wrong” in sending SMS to voters and “there is no need to raise a hue and cry over this”. 

However, Srinivas Kodali, one of the complainants and a researcher with FSMI, said he has not shared his mobile number with either the MLC or the BJP and has not consented to receive any such messages from them. Many others have taken to Twitter to refute N Ramchander Rao. 

Notably, the Chief Electoral Officer of Telangana stated that  this issue has not come into his notice and that he will get it verified. Kodali has filed a complaint with the election commission on this issue, however, it is yet to respond.