Fact Check: CEO of AP did not release caste-based voter list, SM posts are misleading

Candidates from the Reddy, Kamma, and Kapu communities contested for the MLA and MP seats in different constituencies of Andhra Pradesh on May 13, 2024. Despite the proclamations of selecting members of backward classes as candidates for the elections, the ruling and opposition parties allotted most of their seats to the Kamma and Reddy communities.

The Lok Sabha and Assembly elections were completed in Andhra Pradesh on May 13, 2024. However, misinformation is still rampant on social media accounts. One such post relating to the Andhra Pradesh elections is that the Chief Electoral Officer, Andhra Pradesh has released a voter list based on their caste.

The post has a list of the number of votes cast in Andhra Pradesh based on their caste. The list starts with Kapu, Balija ranging at more than 67 lakh votes, SC Mala – 35 lakh votes, Reddy almost 27 lakh votes, the list goes on with all the other castes given random numbers.

An X user shared this list with the caption ‘Even if we look at the voters based on caste, it is an easy win for YSRCP.’

Others just shared the list.

Fact Check:

The claim is False. No such list has been released by the Chief Electoral Officer, Andhra Pradesh.

When we checked the website as well as the social media accounts of the Chief Electoral Officer, Andhra Pradesh, we did not find any such post published or released by him.

Upon further research, we found a few articles stating that the CEO of Andhra Pradesh refuted these claims. An article published by Telugu.samayam states that the Chief Electoral Officer of AP Mukesh Kumar Meena responded to these posts.

He clarified that the viral news that the Election Commission has announced caste-wise voter details in Andhra Pradesh is fake. The AP CEO clarified in his tweet that the Election Commission has not released the caste-wise voter details. All this is false propaganda. In his tweet, he said in his tweet that after fact-checking, the information being shared on social media is wrong. It is clear that all this is fictitious. The AP CEO office has posted on its official Twitter account that only truths and facts should be shared on social media and not such lies.

This news was also fact-checked by One India.

X (Twitter) account of CEO, Andhra Pradesh, shared a post with the caption ‘BUSTED! It's time to set the record straight! The following data circulating online is FALSE! After thorough fact-checking, it's clear that the information being shared is completely fabricated. Don't be fooled by misinformation! Let's keep our feeds filled with truth and accuracy. Spread the word, not the lies! #APElections2024 #SVEEP #ChunavKaParv #DeshKaGarv #ECI #generalelections2024 #Elections2024 #LS2024

Hence, the viral post is False. The Election Commission of Andhra Pradesh has not released any voter list based on caste.